Five persons were arrested here today for possessing 237 smartphones, allegedly brought illegally from South Africa to be sold in India, police said.
The five accused, identified as Usman Bhatia, Rizwan Patel, Yusuf Patel, Mohseen Patel and Imtiaz Ali, were arrested from Kamrej area after police recovered bags during checking containing mobile phones from the two vehicles they were travelling in from Mumbai to Surat, police said.
The high-end phones, many of them Apple iPhone, worth Rs 50 lakh were carbon-wrapped and kept in chocolate and biscuit boxes in four separate bags to evade airport scanner while being brought from South Africa to Mumbai, district Superintendent of Police (Rural) Mayursinh Chavda said.
The accused landed at the Mumbai international airport yesterday and got into two separate vehicles to come to Gujarat with the booty.
They were arrested under CrPC Act 41 (arrest without warrant or order from magistrate) after they failed to produce any bill or receipt to establish that the hand sets they were carrying were bought legally.
"The phones that they possess are either stolen or illegally sourced in the international markets. They were brought to India in order to evade tracing through IMEI (international mobile equipment identity) number because once the handsets crosses international borders, it cannot be traced through IMEI number," Chavda said.
"Also, the phones which are worth Rs 40,000-55,000 in Indian markets are sold at Rs 20,000-25,000. They were being brought to Gujarat in order to be dumped and circulated here without raising any suspicion," Singh said.
While four of the accused belong to Jambusar in Bharuch district, Imtiaz Ali, who originally hails from Jambusar, is now a South African resident.
