PANAJI
The Calangute police have cracked down on smartphone theft with the arrest of Sachin Kumar, a 19-year-old from Uttar Pradesh.The police, while investigating a complaint of Maharashtra tourist Viplove Gautam Dedam, zeroed in on Kumar who during interrogation revealed his involvement in the stealing of several more phones.
Kumar, who temporarily resided at Baga had fled to his native from where the Calangute police brought him to Goa on a transfer warrant.
"During preliminary interrogation, Sachin Kumar disclosed that he had committed theft of more mobile phones from Calangute beach. Thereafter, we recovered 12 mobile phones of different make belonging to tourists all worth Rs 3 lakh approx," Calangute Police Inspector Dattaguru Sawant said. The accused is booked under section 379 of IPC.
The Calangute Police had in December arrested 12 members of two gangs from Maharashtra involved in stealing mobile phones of tourists at Sunburn festival. Tourists in the other crowded places were also targetted. About 41 expensive mobile phones worth Rs 30 lakh were recovered. Several tourists had lodged complaints alleging they lost their phones after they attended the parties.
