Bahraich Police recovers 107 lost phones worth ₹26 lakh, returns to owners

The recovery was carried out by a joint team of Bahraich district police and the surveillance cell as part of an ongoing campaign against crime and criminals being led by Superintendent of Police Vishwajeet Srivastava. The operation was supervised by Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Durga Prasad Tiwari and Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Ayush Vikram Singh, with all area officers leading their teams on the ground.

The 107 recovered mobile phones belong to various companies including Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, Techno, Redmi and OnePlus. The estimated value of the recovered devices is ₹26,12,830 (twenty-six lakh twelve thousand eight hundred thirty). The phones were handed over to their original owners on 06-09-2026 by Superintendent of Police Bahraich.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Durga Prasad Tiwari, Circle Officer Line Tanishk R Jamkar (IPS) and other police officers and staff were present during the handover ceremony.

Under the direction of Superintendent of Police Bahraich, teams were formed under the leadership of the surveillance cell and all station in-charges to run a campaign for the recovery of lost mobile phones in the district. The district surveillance team coordinated with all police stations and carried out daily monitoring of the CEIR portal operated by the Government of India. Through these efforts, the district police teams successfully recovered the 107 missing mobile phones from various companies.

The mobile phone owners, upon receiving their lost phones, expressed their gratitude and praised Superintendent of Police Bahraich and the district police.

On this occasion, the Additional Superintendent of Police Bahraich appealed to the public to download the Sanchar Saarthi App from the Play Store on their mobile phones. This ensures that if a mobile is lost in future, necessary information continues to be received on the registered mobile number. In case of mobile loss, citizens should visit their local police station with the mobile bill/IMEI, Aadhaar card and identity card to lodge a complaint on the CEIR portal. When the mobile is found, information about the action taken by police will be received on the registered mobile number. Superintendent of Police Bahraich also announced that the surveillance team would be rewarded for their excellent work in recovering lost mobiles.

The recovery team comprised personnel deployed on the CEIR portal and mobile recovery teams formed at station level.

CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) Portal was recently launched by the Government of India across the entire country. The portal can be accessed at www.ceir.gov.in.

CEIR is a nationwide system used to maintain a database containing IMEI/IMSI/MSISDN of all mobile devices used in the country. If a mobile is lost or stolen, citizens should immediately report to the local police station and use this web portal to block the IMEI.

The CEIR Portal provides several features. It provides a Device Blocking/Unblocking (IMEI) Interface. Blocking/Unblocking (IMEI) Request Status can be checked. It offers KYC (Know Your Mobile) through App, Web-Portal and SMS. It is integrated with local EIR of all TSPs to obtain device data used in the network. It maintains a Device Registry for all valid/active devices. It includes a Stolen Device Reporting System to blacklist stolen devices across India. It provides Black and Black-List-Overriding facility to all TSPs on all LSAs. It provides device verification facility to government departments, legitimate agencies/state police and general users through SMS, Web Portal and Mobile App.