New Delhi, Dec 11: The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested four members of an interstate mobile phone theft gang and recovered 40 high-end smartphones, many of which had been stolen from a December 7 concert at IGI Stadium, officials said on Thursday.

A team from the Eastern Range-I of the Crime Branch, led by Inspector Ashish Sharma and supervised by ACP Sunil Srivastav, tracked the suspects for nearly 48 hours before intercepting them near Yamuna Vihar Metro Station on December 9.

The police said the accused kept shifting locations to evade surveillance, forcing the team to maintain continuous technical tracking.

The arrested men have been identified as Salman (35), Imran (28), Shahrukh (32) and Wasim (25), all residents of Ghaziabad.

Police recovered eight Apple iPhones — including iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 series along with seven premium Samsung models such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Fold 6.

The remaining phones belonged to OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, Redmi, POCO and Motorola.

Several of the recovered devices have already been matched with FIRs registered at Prashant Vihar, Shahbad Dairy and IP Estate police stations.

According to officers, the gang targeted crowded public places such as concerts, metro stations, bus stops, bars, marketplaces and railway stations.

During interrogation, the alleged kingpin, Salman, confessed that they focused on events frequented by young people carrying expensive phones. Police said the group had been operating across Delhi-NCR for several months.

“The stolen phones were then swiftly shifted to Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), where the gang had established contacts in the grey market. The high-end devices were sold at throwaway prices within hours of the theft, making recovery extremely difficult,” the police said in its press note.

“Salman admitted that the gang had been actively operating in Delhi-NCR for the past several months and had committed scores of such thefts, earning them lakhs of rupees with almost no risk of getting caught until the present arrest,” it added.

Police said the four have been booked under Sections 35(1)(E) and 106 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

“This operation underscores the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s commitment to curbing organised crime and apprehending hardened criminals. Efforts are ongoing to apprehend the accused’s associates and others, and to verify additional cases linked to the accused,” said DCP Vikram Singh.

Thane: Four persons allegedly entered the house of a 26-year-old real estate developer in Navi Mumbai while he was abroad and stole a gold chain valued at Rs 13 lakh, police said on Thursday.

Based on the victim’s complaint, the police have registered a case against his driver, bodyguard, house help and former driver, they said.

The man and his mother, residents of Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, went to Bali, Indonesia, on November 30 and returned on December 7.

After returning, he found his gold chain, weighing 109.7 gm and valued at Rs 13.2 lakh, missing from his drawer.

An analysis of the CCTV footage of the residence showed the presence of four suspects in his bedroom during his absence, an official from Kharghar police station said.

Based on his complaint, the police on Tuesday registered a case against the four suspects under section 306 (theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and were probing it, he added.

New Delhi, Dec 11: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday has chargesheeted 11 accused in a case involving the loot of around 4,000 kg of explosives by armed cadres of the CPI (Maoist) terror organisation during transportation to a stone quarry in Odisha’s Rourkela district.

According to a statement issued by the NIA, all 11 accused have been charged under various sections of the UA(P) Act, BNSS, Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act. During the investigation, the agency found the accused to be actively involved in the criminal conspiracy, planning and execution of the theft of around 200 explosive packets, each containing 20 kg of explosives.

The explosives were being transported to Maoist strongholds in the Saranda Forest in Jharkhand when local police intercepted the vehicle carrying the consignment from the Itma Explosive Station to the Banko stone quarry on May 27. The vehicle, along with its driver, was forcibly seized by 10-15 armed Maoists and taken towards a stronghold of the organisation in the nearby jungle.

The explosives, along with Maoist uniforms and other materials, were seized during a combing operation on the Gandhamardhan Hill range on the Balangir-Bargarh district boundary. The search was conducted jointly by the Special Operation Group (a security force raised to combat Left-wing extremists in Odisha), the CRPF, the Jharkhand Jaguars, and the District Voluntary Force.

The NIA, which took over the case from the local police in June, found that the huge quantity of explosives had been looted for use against the government machinery, including police and security forces, through the commission of terror acts. The agency stated that the loot was part of a larger conspiracy by CPI (Maoist) to destabilise national security.

The 11 chargesheeted accused have been identified as: Jarja Munda alias Kulu Munda; Anmol alias Sushant alias Lalchand Hembram; Ramesh alias Pritam Manjhi alias Anal Da; Pintu Lohra alias Tigar; Laljit alias Lalu; Shiva Bodra alias Shibu; Amit Munda alias Sukhlal Munda; Ravi alias Biren Singh; Rajesh alias Mansid; Sohan alias Ranga Punem; and Aptan alias Chandra Mohan Hansd.

The NIA said its investigation into the case is continuing.