In a major breakthrough, Jaipur Police have successfully busted a gang involved in the theft of iPhones worth Rs 2 crore from a local mobile shop. The theft occurred on November 6, when the accused targeted Ramindra Singh Makhija’s mobile showroom, Hotspot, in Jawahar Nagar. The police arrested five individuals and recovered a large portion of the stolen goods, including Rs 3.85 lakh in cash and the rented car used in the theft.
According to the investigation, one of the arrested suspects, Safan Khan, turned out to be an old acquaintance of the shop owner, Ramindra Singh Makhija. The two had met about a decade ago while Makhija was working in Indore. When Makhija later opened his mobile showroom in Jaipur, Khan reconnected with him and planned the theft.
The investigation revealed that Khan contacted his associates in Mumbai to devise a plan to smuggle the stolen iPhones to Bangladesh. The stolen goods included over 120 iPhones, 150 old iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, all valued at approximately Rs 2 crore.
Safan Khan (30), Rambharose Patel (27), Jatin Hada (18), and Rajesh alias Khanna alias Mama (45), all residents of Madhya Pradesh, were arrested along with Sameer Ahmed Sheikh (38), a Mumbai resident who bought the stolen items.
The theft was captured on CCTV installed in the showroom, which showed the masked thieves breaking the shutter and stealing the items early in the morning. After the theft, the gang escaped on a motorcycle, later abandoning it after 50 kilometers, and then fled in a rented car.
The police traced the vehicle’s registration number to a rental agency in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and used this information to track down and apprehend the accused. During interrogation, the suspects revealed that the stolen goods were being sold to Sameer Ahmed Sheikh in Mumbai, who planned to smuggle the iPhones to Bangladesh.
A police team was sent to Mumbai, where they arrested Sheikh and recovered goods worth about Rs 1.5 crore. Sheikh confirmed that the deal for smuggling the stolen iPhones to Bangladesh had been arranged prior to the theft.
The investigation is ongoing, and the police are working to further unravel the full extent of the gang’s operations.
