Mobiles stolen at airport security

Thieves make off with phones while passengers frisked

Thieves make off with phones while passengers frisked

Days after airport police nabbed two for allegedly stealing the luggage of passengers inside the airport, a rise in mobile theft complaints has been noticed. Police say at least four cases have been registered this month where phones were stolen from trays at the security gates while passengers were being frisked.

Photo for representational purposes only

Advocate Sujit Pathak, resident of Santacruz, said, "I was leaving for Goa for a hearing on October 13. My flight was at 5 am. I took my boarding pass and kept my cell (Nokia N73) on the tray before I was taken for frisking. It took only a minute and the cell was missing." Minutes after, Sujit realised his cell was stolen and raised an alarm. "There were eight-nine CISF officers but no one saw who had picked up the cell from the tray.

Instead, they accused me of misplacing it. I then asked them to show me CCTV footage. It took 40 minutes as they didn't have staff to operate the device. I spotted three guys picking the cell from the tray and switching it off before leaving the premises. If we had seen the grab earlier we could have nabbed them."

Sujit later lodged a FIR with the police. Shubhada Chauhan, investigating officer at the airport police station said, "There have been three-four cases so far. In Sujit's case, we asked for the CCTV footage from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) authorities. The one we got was corrupt. But three men can be seen, two in front of Sujit and one behind. It can be seen that as Sujit goes for the frisking process leaving his cell phone in the tray, the man in front of him takes the cell from the tray,u00a0 switches it off and gives it to the other and three leave the premises."

The same police station busted two people accused of stealing the bags of passengers inside the airport. "We caught two men in their mid-50s who were trying to steal a passenger's bag from the boarding area. We managed to nab them after we received several complaints of luggage theft. They were trapped after checking CCTV visuals," said PI Saudagar Mate.