Mumbai Crime: 20-year-old turns detective to nab cell phone thief

Zinat Haq tracked down Selvraj Shetty (right) to Dadar station

Using her smarts and a nifty feature on her Android phone, Andheri resident Zinat Haq, 20, managed to get her stolen phone back on Monday. Through the My Activity feature on her phone, Haq not only managed to track down her phone, but also helped cops nab the thief.

Haq's phone was stolen on Sunday, August 5, around 10 pm, when she was travelling on the local train. She looked all over for her Xiaomi Redmi MI 4A phone, but couldn't find it anywhere. She then went home.

At home, Haq remembered that she has enabled the My Activity feature, which is available for all Google accounts, and helps track the activity of the device where the account is signed in, on her mobile phone. "The feature sees every single thing being done by another person using my device. Keeping this in mind, I opened my mail after I got home, but hadn't received any message regarding such activity."

Selvaraj Shetty (right) was caught while he was about to leave from Dadar station. Zinat tracked the thief through the My Activity feature

Booked a ticket
Haq, who teaches at the Wonderkids school in Marol, decided to try her luck again the next day. "On Monday, after I was done with work, I checked my e-mail again. That time, I got a picture of the man and details of what applications he'd used on my phone. Luckily, I got another e-mail showing that the man has booked a ticket on a train departing from Dadar railway station at 9.30 pm that day. After that, I rushed to Dadar station," she added.

According to the police, around 8.30 pm, Haq came to the Dadar RPF, approached on duty RPF staff Nitin Mistry and provided them with the thief's name, Selvraj Shetty, the name of the train he was boarding - Puducherry Express - and his PNR and berth numbers.

After receiving this information, Mistry called J S Kale and Vijay Bhosle from the passenger luggage theft department, who immediately went into the train and found Shetty seated on the said berth.

Found in the exact spot
A Dadar RPF officer said, "Upon questioning, he failed to give any satisfactory answer. He was brought to the RPF office, where he disclosed his name as Selvaraj Ratan Shetty, 32, resident of Malad West. After conducting a personal search, a Xiaomi Redmi MI 4A phone worth Rs 7,000 was recovered from him. The complainant identified the device as hers."

Prasad Pandhar, senior inspector, Dadar GRP said, "We've arrested the accused under section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code and produced him before the court, where he was remanded in judicial custody. The accused has no criminal history."

An RPF officer said, "We're happy that a 20-year-old did this and even filed a complaint against the accused who'd stolen her mobile phone. Many times, when we catch the accused and recover the mobile, the person whose phone is stolen avoids lodging a complaint."

How Zinat did it
If you have a Google account, you can track the activity being done on each of the devices linked to it through the My Activity feature. Find it on: myactivity.google.com.

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