Pune: BSc Student Arrested for Stealing Phones to Pay His Mobile EMIs and Girlfriend's Expenses

Pune, January 23: Unable to manage his instalments, a highly educated youth took to stealing mobile phones to manage his expenses. The accused Omkar Vinod Battul (Age 22, Resident of Nana Peth) has been arrested by the Shivajinagar police for allegedly stealing top brand's mobile phones and selling them to the mobile phone dealers by fording the receipts of the stolen cell phones. As per the police, Battul who is a final year BSc student in a Pune-based college took to stealing mobile phones to earn money, the police have recovered almost 17 mobile phones of high-end brands from the accused.

 A few days ago, the Shivajinagar police station received a complaint about a Samsung smartphone being stolen on January 4 from a furniture store by an unidentified thief. A case was registered at the police station, and an investigation was initiated by senior police inspector Chandrashekhar Sawant. The officers of the investigation team, while carrying out the technical analysis of the stolen mobile phone, Assistant Police Inspector Bajirao Naik, Police Constable Rupesh Waghmare, Adesh Chalwadi, Ruchika Jamdhade received a tip-off regarding the wear-about of the accused and accordingly laid a trap and nabbed the accused from the Shivaji Nagar area.

During interrogation, he admitted to stealing the cell phones since he had no job. His cunning in trying to sell cell phones that had been stolen astounded the cops. As per the police Battul used PDF copies of bills of reputed electronics shops in Pune, edited the details of the original bill of sale and entered the details of the stolen phones. He made a fresh PDF soft copy of the bill and sold the stolen mobile as his own by altering the details in the bill. Using the forged bill PDF and his own Aadhar card, he has sold these stolen mobile phones to mobile store owners.

Further investigation revealed that Battul had bought a mobile from Vijay Sales showroom a few months ago, which was purchased in instalments. However, after a few days, he found it difficult to pay the instalments as he was unemployed. He found it difficult to manage his and his girlfriend's expenses; hence, he started stealing mobile phones and selling them. Senior Police Inspector Chandrashekhar Sawant said, “The accused has been arrested and a case has been registered under sections 465, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Further investigation is underway.”