Mysore/Mysuru: At least 115 mobile phones that were stolen or lost have been traced and 25 were returned to their owners, thanks to the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) system. This complaining mechanism provides for deactivating the stolen devices and alerts the Police whenever an attempt is made to use them.

The mobile phones were handed over to its owners by City Police Commissioner Ramesh Banoth at his office this morning. The phones were traced by the Cybercrime, Economic offences and Narcotics (CEN) Police wing with the help of CEIR portal — ceir.gov.in — of the Union Department of Telecommunications (DOT), said the Police Commissioner.

He told reporters here that Police Stations in the Commissionerate had received requests for blocking mobile phones after they were either stolen or lost. Before the CEIR portal was launched, there were very few chances of lost phone recovery.

“The normal way was to extract further information from a mobile phone lifter upon his/her arrest in one case and get some more instruments. Whenever a person approached the Police with the mobile phone lost complaint, the Police used to give an acknowledgement often. Now the system has changed completely with the portal,” B. Ramesh explained.

Once the complaint is made providing all details of the device and its owner on the CEIR portal, the mobile automatically gets blocked. Any attempt to use the device by inserting a new SIM card will result in the Police getting an alert about the number and location and other details of the new user. The Cops will activate the device, call back the number, tell the receiver that it is a stolen phone and he/she should return it or face legal consequences. The SIM card used by the receiver provides all details making it easy for Police to get in touch with him/her.

Details, including the IMEI number, would be uploaded onto the CEIR Portal and the phone gets blocked once a complaint is lodged with the Police by the owner. Enforcement authorities would immediately get notified and could track the device whenever someone attempts to use the phone through another SIM. CEIR also ensures lost/stolen phones were not used for illegal activities thereby helping enforcement agencies.

Owners can either upload the details on the CEIR portal after obtaining an acknowledgment for their Police complaint or leave it to the Police to trace the phone.

DCPs M. Muthuraj (Law & Order) & S. Jahnavi (Crime & Traffic), CEN Inspector Yoga Nanjappa were present. The staff who detected the lost phones were Sub-Inspectors Pooja, Siddappa and Firoz Khan (probationary), ASI Subhash Chandra, Anil, Badsha, Nataraj & Yakub Shareef.