Surat police in Goa attach I-phone of customer as part of theft probe
MARGAO
The next time you buy a cell phone, including an I-phone, make sure you insist on a bill and other documentation from the mobile retail outlet.
For, chances are that you may land in trouble or run the risk of being hauled up by the law enforcing agencies if the phone in question turns out to be a stolen one.
A gullible I-phone customer realised the bitter truth when a police team from Surat in Gujarat descended in the city here to investigate into an FIR into stolen mobile phones from a dealer in Surat last year.
To the good luck of the phone users, he could produce the bills and other documents to prove a point or two to the Surat police that he had purchased the phone from a mobile phone outlet in the commercial capital.
But, given that a FIR stands registered at the police station back home, the Surat police team is believed to have attached the I-phone from the owner costing around Rs 75,000.
As a matter of caution, the I-phone owner along with his lawyer descended at the Margao police station on Thursday to lodge a report stating that the phone was purchased from a Margao-based mobile retail outlet.
The lawyer later told the media that his client is no where involved in the stolen mobile row, but the Surat Police has attached the I-phone as part of the investigations. “What crime has my client committed when he as a customer walked into a mobile phone retail outlet and purchased the devise? Fortunately, my client could produce the bill and other valid documents to prove that he had legally purchased the phone from the outlet,” the lawyer said.
Police officials attached to the Margao police station maintained it has no role to play in the matter, other than providing security for the visiting policemen from Surat. A police officer, however, pointed out that not only the customer owning the I-phone has produced valid documents on the purchase of the devise, but the retail outlet owner produced documents to prove that the mobile sets were purchased by him from a dealer.
