ITANAGAR, 9 Oct: In a major breakthrough, the Itanagar police have arrested a habitual mobile phone thief and recovered 20 stolen handsets of various brands, collectively worth around Rs 10 lakh, from his possession.
On Wednesday, a written FIR was received from a complainant, stating that during the intervening night of 4-5 October, an unknown person had entered his workplace at Solung ground, 0 Point Tinali, and stolen his mobile handset. A case under Section 305(a) BNS was registered, and investigation was entrusted to ASI Tatum Tari.
Acting swiftly, a special police team led by Itanagar PS OC Inspector K Yangpo was constituted, under the supervision of Itanagar SP Jummar Basar and SDPO Kengo Dirchi.
The team arrested one Arun Baruah (19), a resident of Ganga market, Itanagar. During interrogation, the accused confessed to having stolen over 100 mobile phones from various locations across the Itanagar Capital Region over the past year. He further revealed that he used to sell the stolen handsets at throwaway prices to labourers and autorickshaw and Trekker drivers in and around the Ganga market area.
It is noteworthy that Arun’s brother, Anup Baruah, had been arrested in June this year in connection with copper wire and battery theft, and has been in judicial custody for the past four months.
In the instant case, further investigation is underway to identify the receivers of the stolen phones and to trace the remaining stolen handsets.
