A gang stole several iPhones from a shop in the Indian state of Rajasthan to smuggle them to Bangladesh. Its market value is around 2 crore rupees in Indian currency. Jaipur police recently arrested 5 members of that gang. According to the police, they stole the iPhones from a local mobile shop on November 6.
Indian news media India Today reported that the police recovered 385,000 rupees in cash from the arrested persons and a rental car used in the theft. Based on preliminary investigation, the police said that one of the arrested, Safan Khan, is an old friend of Raminder Singh Makhija, the owner of the mobile shop.
According to the inquiry, mobile shop owner Makhija was working in Indore in Madhya Pradesh 10 years ago, when he met Safan Khan. After Makhija opened a mobile showroom in Jaipur, Safan visited the shop and planned the robbery. Safan then contacted his friends in Mumbai and planned to smuggle the stolen iPhones to Bangladesh.
Police said the masterminds Safan Khan (30), Rambharoj Patel (27), Jatin Hada (18) and Rajesh Alia Khan (45)—all hail from Madhya Pradesh. Apart from this, one Samir Ahmed Sheikh (38) has been arrested for allegedly buying a stolen mobile phone.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said, 'Raminder Singh Makhija has a mobile showroom. Name hotspot. It is located in 5th Circle of Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur. On the morning of November 6, three masked thieves first entered the showroom by breaking the shutters. They stole 120 iPhones and around 150 older iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, etc. from the showroom. The value of the stolen goods was around Rs 2 crore.'
The entire incident of theft was captured on the CCTV camera installed in the showroom. The police tracked the movements of the thieves by looking at the CCTV footage. After the theft, the thieves fled on a motorbike. The police also learned that the thieves abandoned the bike after 50 km and fled in a hired car.
From the vehicle's registration number, the police learned that the vehicle was hired from an agency in Indore in Rajasthan's neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh. Later the thieves were identified and arrested. The arrested persons told the police that they used to sell the stolen goods to Sameer Ahmed Sheikh of Mumbai. The police then sent a team to Mumbai and arrested Sameer Sheikh.
Along with the arrest of Sameer, stolen goods worth about one and a half crore rupees have been recovered from him. During interrogation, Samir said that the stolen iPhones were prepared to be sent to Bangladesh and an agreement was made in this regard before the theft.
