I lost my second mobile phone on Monday. This is not such a major trajedy as I use that mobile phone for specific purposes and my main mobile phone was at home when I lost this one.
The lost phone has been with me since the very first time I bought a mobile phone in 2005. Since my server then could not give me a handset with bluetooth facilities, I had bought another phone and shifted to another service provider. Since then, I had been using the second hand set mostly.
The loss of the mobile phone is not what this post is all about. It is about what one needs to do in India when this happens. When I contacted the service provider as to what I need to do in this situation, he asked me to immediately report the matter to the police and then go over personally to the franchisee’s shop to arrange to block the number.
I went to the nearest police outpost, where I was informed that I had to go to the precinct police station as, this matter was a serious one. So off I went to the police station and was told to come back after three hours as there had been a double murder followed by a riot in a neighbouring area, and the station was busy with that. I returned home and went back after three hours and the officer concerned was very cooperative and gave me immediate service. He also gave me an official copy of the first information report as it is called here to be given to the service provider.
I asked the officer as to why such a big drama when all that was needed was a direct contact with the service provider for blocking the number and making the handset useless for someone else. The reply jolted me.
Apparently, terrorists use stolen or found handsets for their communications to avoid being traced later. I promptly rushed off to the service provider and got the number and the instrument blocked so that some lunatic using it does not land me into a list of suspected terrorists.
Mayo and Grannymar, contrary to your belief, let me assure you that I am not a terrorist.
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