Pathanamthitta: For the past several months, the cyber help desk at the Pamba police station has been making calls, "Hello, this is Pamba police calling. The phone you are using was lost at Sabarimala. Please send it back to the Pamba police station immediately." in various languages to different states as well as reaching the owners of lost phones.

During the last Makaravilakku season, 230 people who visited Sabarimala lost their mobile phones. As many as 102 of them got their phones back and expressed their gratitude to the police. The cyber help desk was formed following the instructions of the District Police Chief, V G Vinod Kumar, after the Mandala Makaravilakku season of the previous year to trace the lost mobile phones of pilgrims. As part of the help desk, a counter with internet connectivity was set up, and all police officers at the station were trained to use the CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) portal.

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Details are collected from devotees who report lost phones at the station and registered on the CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register) portal. The mobile phone is immediately blocked. A message is sent to the mobile number registered by the complainant. If the blocked phone is switched on through any mobile network, the network service provider informs the complainant and the registered police station through the portal.

Officers from the cyber help desk contact the currently used number on the phone and inform the owner through calls and notices. In this way, 102 phones were received from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. These were sent back to their rightful owners through courier. In a special drive conducted in May alone, 25 phones worth approximately 6.5 lakhs were recovered.

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The portal revealed that lost phones were being used in North India and the North-Eastern states. Most of the recovered phones came from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Many people sell the phones lost by someone to mobile shops in their home towns. When someone buys these and inserts a new SIM card, an alert is sent to the police. The District Police Chief stated that investigations will be extended to Kambam, Theni, and Coimbatore, where the most phones were found, and that those buying second-hand phones should be cautious.

The cyber help desk operates under the supervision of Ranni DySP Jayaraj and the leadership of Pamba SHO C K Manoj. About twelve police officers from the Pamba station participated in the special drive in May. The team at the cyber help desk comprises SCPOs Samson Peter, Suraj R Kurup, S Dinesh, and CPOs Arun Madhu, Sudheesh, S Arun, R Rajesh, Anirudh, Sajeesh, Rahul, Niwas, and Anu S Ravi from the Pamba police station.

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