Bengaluru police have seized 250 stolen smartphones that were just about to be sold to a dealer in Kerala for Rs 9 lakh.
On August 4, Kalasipalya police intercepted a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga (registration number KA 41/MB 9880) on AV Road near Chamarajpet. Three men were sitting inside with two large bags. A search revealed the presence of scores of smartphones in the bags. Hidden deep inside were three machetes.
One of the men — identified as Raju, 25, from Anantapur — acknowledged the ownership of the car but didn’t give a satisfactory answer about the phones or the machetes. The men were taken to the police station, and an investigation was conducted.
Police learnt that the smartphones — all Android devices, no iPhone — had been stolen from different places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Their main supplier, a man from Andhra Pradesh, had despatched them to Raju and his accomplice, a Hyderabad native named Mohammed Rafiq, 36. Raju and Rafiq added some of the smartphones they themselves had stolen in Bengaluru to the haul and pitched it to Nisamuddin, a 36-year-old man from Thiruvananthapuram who intended to sell them in Kerala.
When the gang was caught, Raju and Rafiq were negotiating the price with Nisamuddin. They wanted Rs 9 lakh for 250 phones.
A manhunt has been launched for the main supplier, said Chandrakanth L T, the inspector of the Kalasipalya police station.
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