5 months on, Rs 3crore smartphone heist cracked, seven arrested in Chikkaballapur

It was one of the biggest highway heists reported on the outskirts of Bengaluru: Over 5,000 new Xiaomi smartphones, worth a whopping Rs 3 crore, were stolen from a container truck which was coming to the tech capital.
Five months after the incident, Chikkaballapur district police cracked the case by arresting a seven-member gang. However, only 56 of the stolen smartphones could be recovered. Police probe revealed the gang had disposed of the stolen smartphones at dirt-cheap prices in Delhi and other cities and earned around Rs 90 lakh.

"Identifying and arresting the accused was a major challenge. Five attempts were made to secure them in recent months, but they escaped every time," a senior police officer said.
Cops swung into action on Nov 28 last year after the manager of Safe Speed Carriers, a logistics company, lodged a complaint on Nov 28, stating a container truck with a consignment of 6,660 smartphones hadn't reached its destination in Bengaluru as scheduled on Nov 22. On tracking the vehicle using GPS, company officials and cops realised the driver, identified as Rahul, had also vanished after the theft. "It was a pointer to an insider job," the cops said. The container truck was transporting the smartphones from Noida.
Chikkaballapur superintendent of police Kushal Chousky said Rahul was arrested on Dec 10 from Miyo village in Palwal district of Haryana. As the case involved technical evidence, it was taken up by CEN Police in Chikkaballapur on Jan 29 this year.
Investigating from multiple angles, a team led by Chikkaballapur DySP Ravikumar KY and inspector Surya Prakash arrested six more individuals. Investigation revealed the accused had transferred the stolen consignment to another truck and fled the scene. After reaching Delhi, the accused coordinated distribution of the stolen phones in 18 states across the country. The devices were sold at significantly reduced prices in open markets.
Unaware that the phones were stolen, customers purchased and used them, said Chousky and added: "We are taking steps to deactivate another 4,084 phones with assistance of the department of telecommunication."