Vijayawada: Commissioner of Police SV Rajasekhar Babu handed over the stolen or lost 372 mobiles worth Rs 60 lakh to the rightful owners here on Sunday.

The NTR district police recovered 372 mobiles as part of the fourth mobile phone recovery drive launched by them. Using the Central Equipment Identity Register portal, the police recovered the lost or stolen mobiles after the victims lodged complaints along with the IMEI number of the mobile, the purchase receipt and address proof. The telecom service providers would block the IMEI numbers and hand over the names of the persons who are presently using the mobiles.

The police track them and after unblocking the IMEI number, the mobiles would be handed over to the rightful owners.

Addressing the media, the Commissioner of Police appealed to the people to immediately launch complaints with the police after they lost the mobiles. The latest technology is helping the police to track stolen mobiles.

This is the fourth time the police recovered a huge number of mobiles.

Rajasekhar Babu said that the police are yet to recover some more mobiles and exuded confidence that they would also be seized. He appealed to the people not to get defrauded in the name of investments.

Underlining the importance of road safety and cyber safety, the Commissioner said that everyone should focus on safety culture.

“Efforts are on to install more CCTVs across the state and already 1,260 cameras were set up in the limits of Vijayawada city,” he said. He appealed to the apartment management to install CCTVs both inside and outside to help the police to crack thefts. In case of cybercrimes, the people should call toll free number 1930 immediately to get relief and get back their lost money. So far, during the last three drives, the NTR district police recovered 2,205 mobiles and handed them over to the owners.

DCPs Gautami Shali K Tirumaleswar Reddy, KGV Sarita, ABTS Udaya Rani, M Krishna Murthy Naidu and SVD Prasad, ADCP G Ramakrishna, cybercrime officials and others participated.