Mobile tracing etc.

 In this city you cannot live without  a mobile phone.

These days everyone has a mobile phone including the cops , robbers and other types of lowlife. There are many service providers offering a multitude of schemes. It is the prepaid service that is used by most criminals. Because it is easy to get and difficult to trace. The operator is not worried about the address of the user because there are no bills -- almost no verification checks are done. Anyone with a driving license can get a prepaid SIM -- you won't guess how many of the these driving licenses are having invalid or old addresses.

So when you trace the address of a mobile number belonging to a wanted criminal, you are not surprised to find that there is no one the address or more likely the address does not even exist. But still tracing mobile numbers have become the prime activity of one section of Mumbai Police.

There is an elaborate infrastructure in place just for this purpose. Basically you (meaning the officer in charge of the investigation)  sent a request for the CDR (call data records) of a number or IMEI to the DCP or ACP from where it is forwarded to the service provider who maintains a security departmant just to cater to these requests. Most of the time the operator is very prompt in emailing the requested records except when it is a govt. company like MTNL. All records are for a specific period.

Just such a request was sent by API Chavan to the DCP.  Most requests from police stations are delayed, rejected or dumped in the trash at the DCP's office. Mainly because there are far too many requests and then againi most police are not savvy enough to analyze it when they eventually do get a cdr. Anyway most requests are for lost mobiles.

Because of all these reasons and because one section of the police force has dutifully alerted  the criminal, by the time the mobile records were received the culprit has already fled Mumbai.

Some Prathabh Garh residents have reported sighting him in his native village. Though it is more or less confirmed that the target is now at Tiwaripur village, Police have no real hope of catching him there. It is his fortress and his playground where the police don't want to become the proverbial sitting ducks!