3,000 phones missing in Noida, police launch search operation

Noida: Around 3,000 mobile phones belonging to residents of Noida are "missing" since the last few years and the police have launched a special operation to recover them, officials said on Wednesday.

A senior officer said complaints linked to the missing phones have been received across the nine police stations of Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh since last few years.

"Right now, we have estimated that around 3,000 mobile phones are in the missing category in Noida," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said.

These are recent cases as well as old cases in which recoveries could not be made, the officer said. A special operation to recover as many as phones as possible has been launched, he added.

Avasthy said usually the complaints of phone snatchings or phone thefts take precedence over incidents of someone "missing" or "misplacing" their devices but such phones could be misused by miscreants for criminal activities also.

"In such a situation, when people misplace their phone, they also at times do not take it seriously until they realise that they have lost their phones and then report it to the police," IPS officer said.

He said the operation to recover missing phones is fetching results and so far around 100 such phones have been recovered.

"People who have lost their mobile phones can contact their local police or send an email to: 'adcp-polnoida.gb@up.gov.in' with their complaint and details and we shall strive to recover the lost devices," the officer said.