Over the past 15 days, the Mumbai Police have recovered over 5000 mobile phones owned by Mumbaikars that were stolen or had gone missing but were reactivated with new SIM cards. Most of these devices were traced to Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and other northern states, pointing to a well-organised interstate syndicate dealing in stolen phones.

About 20 days ago, thanks to the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) — a centralised database of mobile equipment identifiers operated by the Department of Telecommunications, the police learnt that than 25,000 stolen or missing mobile phones from Mumbai had been recently reactivated with new SIM cards.