iPhones worth Rs 2 crore seized from thieves in Jaipur, 5 arrested

Jaipur police has busted a gang who stole iPhones from a local mobile shop on November 6 and were planning to smuggle them to Bangladesh, officials said on Friday.
iPhones worth Rs 2 crore, Rs 3.85 lakh in cash and a rented car used for theft have been recovered from the possession of the five accused arrested by Jaipur police.
As per the initial investigation, police have revealed that one of the arrested accused, Safan Khan, turned out to be an old friend of the mobile shop owner, Ramindra Singh Makhija.
During the interrogation, it came to light that mobile shop owner Makhija had befriended Safan Khan when he used to work in Indore about 10 years ago.
When Makhija set up a mobile showroom in Jaipur, Khan came to meet him and hatched a plan for a theft. Khan contacted his friends in Mumbai who made a plan to smuggle the stolen iPhones to Bangladesh, police said.
Police said that mastermind Safan Khan (30), Rambharose Patel (27), Jatin Hada (18), and Rajesh alias Khanna alias Mama (45), all residents of Madhya Pradesh, have been arrested. Also, Sameer Ahmed Sheikh (38), resident of Gawandi (Mumbai), who purchased the stolen goods has also been arrested.
“Raminder Singh Makhija has a mobile showroom named Hotspot in Panchvati Circle in Jawahar Nagar in Jaipur. On the morning of November 6, three masked thieves first broke the shutter of the showroom and then entered inside. They stole more than 120 iPhones and about 150 old iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, among others, from the showroom. The cost of the stolen goods was said to be around Rs 2 crore,” Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said.
The entire incident was captured on CCTV installed in the showroom. The police searched through the CCTV footage to track the movement of thieves who escaped on a bike after committing theft. The police also found out that the thieves discarded the bike after 50 kilometres and then fled in a car.
With the help of the car’s registration number, the police came to know that the vehicle was rented from an agency in Indore in Rajasthan’s neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. The thieves were eventually tracked down and apprehended.
The arrested accused told police that they used to sell stolen items to one Sameer Ahmed Sheikh in Mumbai. Following that, a police team was immediately rushed to Mumbai and caught Sheikh, who bought the stolen goods there.
Stolen goods worth about Rs 1.50 crore were recovered from his possession. During interrogation, he said that the stolen iPhones were to be sent to Bangladesh and the deal for the same was done before the theft.