Vellore district police handed over 300 lost and found mobile phones, valued at ₹60 lakh, to their respective owners on Tuesday. The devices were recovered by the Vellore district cybercrime unit.
The hand‑over follows the establishment of a Cyber Crime police unit at the superintendent’s office and the launch of a cell‑tracker application that allows complaints to be registered. Superintendent of Police N.U. Sivaraman personally delivered the phones to owners at his office in Vellore town.
To date, the police have returned 2,588 mobile phones worth approximately ₹5.05 crore. The cybercrime team tracks missing handsets by monitoring their IMEI numbers at regular intervals, enabling them to locate lost phones.
When a missing phone is activated—whether by a finder or a second‑hand buyer who has not verified its status—the cybercrime team alerts the user. Owners can then hand the device over to the police or send it via courier from other districts and states. All complaints of snatching or missing mobile phones are taken up by the cybercrime cells for investigation.
