Illegal mobile phone assembly, IMEI tampering racket busted

The Delhi Police claimed to have busted an illegal mobile phone assembly and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) tampering racket in Karol Bagh and arrested five persons in this regard, the police said on Thursday.

Those arrested have been identified as Ashok Kumar (45), owner of the manufacturing unit, Ramnarayan (36), Dharmender Kumar (35), Deepanshu (25) and Deepak (19), all resident of Delhi.

The police got a tip-off about the illegal mobile assembly and IMEI tempering unit at a building in Karol Bagh. Acting on the information, a raid was conducted at Aditya Electronics and Accessories, situated on the fourth floor of a building in Beedanpur, Karol Bagh, on November 20, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Nidhin Valsan.

The DCP said during the raid, five persons were found assembling mobile phones and altering IMEI numbers on a laptop using a software. All of them were arrested from the spot.

Valsan said the accused were involved in assembling phones using old motherboards and fitting them with new body parts, which were of very low quality and were imported from China.

Moreover, they were also involved in altering IMEI numbers of mobile phones using specialised software and sold them in the market.

During the raid, the police recovered 1,826 mobile phones, laptop used for IMEI modification, IMEI writing software, IMEI scanning device and accessories and tools used for assembling phones.