Aarushi's 'recovered mobile phone' is raising more questions than answering them; experts say it won't provide any potential lead
Aarushi's 'recovered mobile phone' is raising more questions than answering them; experts say it won't provide any potential lead
The 'major' breakthrough in the Aarushi Talwar murder case will actually lead the investigators nowhere. That's what experts opine.
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The mobile was recovered 16 months after it went missing on May 18 last year, and the police have already taken call and SMS details from the service provider. Interrogations on that basis are also over.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to locate the phone even though it was being used since January 2009, as the Delhi police has claimed. The bigger question is how was the mobile being used when the CBI had directed the manufacturer to block the phone? Also, even if the phone was in use why could the central investigating agency not track it?
"There is a chance that the IMEI number of the mobile was tampered with. It doesn't take much expertise to do that. If the mobile was used even once, the tower of the service provider could have registered the IMEI number of the set. The security agency could have easily recovered the details about the location of the phone from that information," said Himanshu Tiwari, a telecommunications expert.
The CBI had earlier claimed that the two prime suspects in the case, Krishna and Rajkumar, had confessed to their crime during the narcoanalysis test. The investigating agency had also said the two had claimed they had destroyed the mobile phones of both Hemraj and Aarushi. If the phones were destroyed then, what has the Delhi Police recovered now?
Telecom experts have also pointed out many loopholes in the process of recovery with the help of the IMEI number. Ramphool, from whom the phone was recovered, has confessed he was using it since January.
The questions
>>The mobile was recovered 16 months after it went missing. What took the security agencies so long to locate it?
>>How many hands did the cellphone change before being dumped in the drain, from where the cops found it?
>>Who threw the phone in the drain?
>>How was the mobile being used when the CBI had directed the manufacturer to block the phone?
>>The Delhi Police had claimed the phone was destroyed by the two prime suspects. What has been recovered now?
What is IMEI and how it helps
The Global Systems for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) maintains a worldwide database of genuine IMEI numbers. This is activated and updated every 15 days in the Equipment Identity Register of mobile operators' networks.
The IMEI number is used to identify mobile calls. All handsets manufactured by licensed producers come with the IMEI number.
Whenever a user makes a call from his handset, the 16-digit IMEI on genuine handsets gets reflected at the operator's network, thus enabling identification of the caller or lawful interception of calls.
Mobile operators store the 16-digit IMEI in Equipment Identity Register so that a stolen handset can be barred from use. But in the case of handsets with 15-digit IMEI, they are unable to do so.
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