Lost in transit: How an IGIA loader made 75 phones vanish

NEW DELHI: The IGI Airport Police have arrested Monu alias Nikhil Kumar (28), a loader at Air India SATS and a resident of Shahabad Muhammadpur, Delhi, for stealing 75 mobile phones from a shipment.

The case came to light after an e-FIR was registered on February 6 by Sanjay Yadav, head of sales and marketing at Skywiz Cargo Services, a logistics partner of Samsung India Electronics. According to Yadav, on January 27, four PVC boxes containing 280 Samsung S-25 Ultra phones were dispatched from Noida Phase II to Indore. However, only three boxes arrived, while one, containing 75 phones, went missing.

A special investigative team, led by Inspector Sushil Goyal (SHO/IGI Airport) and supervised by ACP/IGI Airport, was formed. CCTV footage of loading and warehouse areas was meticulously examined, but no initial leads surfaced. The breakthrough came when technical surveillance on the stolen phones revealed some had been activated.

The investigation led to Suman Kumar, a mobile dealer from East Patel Nagar, who admitted to purchasing 27 stolen phones from Arun Sharma for Rs 26,54,000. These were later returned by customers due to missing purchase invoices. Further questioning led police to Arun Sharma in Ghaziabad, who had acquired 34 phones from Sahil in Mathura. Seven of these were recovered from Sharma himself. Another stolen phone was traced to a user in Farrukh Nagar, Gurugram, who had bought it from a shopkeeper named Chintu. Upon interrogation, Chintu admitted to purchasing two stolen phones from Nikhil for Rs 2 lakh. Following his arrest, Nikhil confessed to using his position as a loader to steal the shipment. He hid the phones in an unused container before smuggling them out in batches. He later sold 55 phones to Sahil and two to Chintu.

So far, 36 stolen devices have been recovered. Authorities are continuing efforts to locate the remaining suspects and retrieve the missing phones. The investigation remains ongoing.