Mobile tower dump under police lens
Amit Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 16
While the UT police have so far failed to identify the man who molested a woman journalist at the PU botanical garden on December 9, they are now collecting the dump of mobile tower to move their investigation further.
Had helped cops crack Khushpreet murder case
Khushpreet (5) was kidnapped for ransom on December 21, 2010. His body was recovered on January 5, 2011, from a pit in Phase X, Mohali.
The three convicts, who were Khushpreet’s neighbours, had kidnapped the child. Sukhdev Singh, the mastermind in the case, was under a heavy debt and hatched the conspiracy for ransom.
Sukhdev Singh, alias Billa, made the “mistake” of calling his brother Gurvinder Singh, an accomplice, from his mobile phone either just before or soon after he had finished making ransom calls from various STD booths located in and around the city.
Analysis of several thousands of mobile numbers obtained from mobile towers located near the STD booths, from where ransom calls were made, led the police to zero in on a phone number common to the areas immediate close to five STD booths that coincided with the time when the ransom calls were made. The number turned out to be that of Sukhdev.
This led to the police laying hands on Sukhdev and his brother Gurvinder.
The dump provides information about the cellphones active in a particular area where the mobile towers are located.
An inspector of the UT police, who has been instrumental in cracking several high-profile cases, stated that it was much easier to crack a case through the mobile tower dump if there were suspects. “In case there are no suspects, the process of tracking down the suspect gets tougher, as it involves analysing thousands or even more mobile phone numbers,” he added.
Analysing a mobile number is one tedious task, which takes several weeks.
In the case of molestation reported at the PU, the cops are collecting the dump of the closest mobile tower, from all mobile service providers.
The police said they would now be analysing thousands of mobile numbers that were operative in the area on the day of the incident and a day before.
The police said they cannot narrow down to a particular area covered by the tower location to establish the mobile numbers active in that area.
The police Inspector said usually, the dump of mobile towers for a period between an hour before and 15 minutes after the incident was analysed since the criminal was expected to leave the location immediately after committing the crime.
In the PU case, the molester had approached the complainant a day before as well, following which the police will also analyse the tower dump of the day before the incident.
The police said once the dump was analysed, the mobile numbers in the tower location on both the days at the same time when the complainant was there would be shortlisted.
Divulging how the suspect can further be tracked, the cop said the mobile numbers, which went out of the mobile tower covering the area, after the incident, could be further shortlisted. “The mobile numbers of people from the same area will not leave the tower location. However, those who were from outside the area, including the accused, must have left the area, which can further help in identifying the suspects that can finally lead to identification of the molester,” the cop added.
The police said once the mobile numbers were shortlisted, police teams would visit the residence of each person on the list to check if any of them matched the description of the accused.
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