Over 12,000 lost mobile phones traced, returned to owners in Punjab last year: Police

Over 12,000 lost mobile phones have been traced and returned to their owners following detailed technical and data analysis over the last year in Punjab, police officials said.

Conservative estimates suggest that the value of the recovered phones could be in the range of Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore.

Sangrur district topped the chart with 68 per cent recovery rate as 1,276 out of 1,875 lost phones were traced. Bathinda was at the second spot with recovery of 939 out of 1,797 lost mobile phones, registering 52 per cent recovery rate.

The percentage of recovery of lost mobile phones in Fatehgarh Sahib, Barnala, Malerkotla and Muktsar was pegged at 47, 45, 39 and 38, respectively as per the data for the period.

The recovery percentage of lost mobile phones in Rupnagar, Patiala, Jalandhar Rural and Ludhiana Police Commissionerate was on the lower side at 17, 14, 13 and 9, according to the data.

Maximum mobile phones have been reported lost in Ludhiana police commissionerate with a figure of 5,868, followed by 3,296 in Amritsar police commissionerate, 3,090 in Batala, 3,056 in Ferozepur and 2,608 in Patiala in the past more than one year.

According to the data, police recovered 12,073 lost mobile handsets since January 1, 2025.

Under its initiative to recover lost mobile phones, Punjab Police regularly holds special camps in districts where it hands over the recovered mobile phones to their rightful owners.

A senior police officer in Tarn Taran said under the drive, police recovered around 300 mobile phones in the past six months and emphasised that police make all-out efforts to recover lost mobile phones.

''Mobile owners feel very happy when they get back their lost handsets. In some cases, phones which were lost for more than two years were also recovered,'' Tarn Taran, Senior Superintendent of Police, Surendra Lamba told PTI.

After receiving complaints regarding lost mobile phones, police with the help of the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) -- a Government of India portal -- try to trace the missing mobile devices and initiate the recovery process once they are traced.

The CEIR is a centralised system implemented to manage and track mobile devices using their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers. It helps combat mobile device theft and misuse.

According to police officials involved in tracing and recovery of lost mobile phones, it was found that in the majority of cases, people bought lost mobile phones without any bill from unscrupulous persons after being lured by lower rates.

Explaining the recovery process, a police official said after police find with the help of CEIR that the lost phone is activated, they call up the person, telling him that it is a lost phone and ask him to return, failing which a legal action will follow.

''We tell the person who is in illegal possession of a mobile phone that it belongs to someone else and return it,'' Inspector (Jalandhar Rural) Pushp Bali said.

Recently, the Jalandhar Rural police recovered 120 mobile phones worth Rs 25 lakh. Out of them, around 20 were recovered from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, said the police official.

If a lost phone is found to be switched off, police try to seek details about the alternate number of the person who is in possession of it, a police official in Sangrur said.

Police also attempt to trace a person after contacting the one with whom he remains in touch maximum time through mobile calls, the police official said.

In one such case, police managed to recover an iPhone, snatched from a cloth merchant in Amritsar. Police discovered the whereabouts of the snatcher after contacting his friend whom he contacted maximum times based on his call detail record.

In another case, police in Sangrur arrested a man after he confessed to have stolen 15 mobile phones after a lost cell phone was recovered from him, the official said.

A senior police official in Jalandhar said mobile phones contain personal information, photographs, banking details, and other important data.

He appealed to the people that in case any mobile phone is lost or stolen, it should immediately be reported to the police.

Lost mobile phones can sometimes be misused by anti-social elements for criminal activities or cybercrimes. Timely reporting not only assists in the recovery of the mobile phone but also helps prevent any possible misuse, he further said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)