Bhubaneswar: After facing disappointment from police to find his stolen mobile phone, a PhD student of IIT Bhubaneswar successfully traced the thief with help of technology.

Asutosh Acharya, PhD student of IIT Bhubaneswar, was on a visit to one of his friends residing at Utkal University hostel on June 16 where his phone was stolen. He reported the incident at Saheed Nagar police station, but not satisfied with the police investigation he decided to trace the phone himself.

The phone had Mi Cloud facility that Asutosh had linked with his email. As the thief was not able to unlock the phone, he had given it at a mobile repairing centre. The mobile shop owner had inserted his SIM in the phone to unlock it when an alert message was sent to Asutosh’s email.

Asutosh first tracked the number on WhatsApp and then on Facebook and was able to find the location of the shop owner who was from Tigiria in Cuttack district. Later, he became Facebook friend with the shop owner and extracted the details of the thief by posing as a police officer.

“After going to the police station for two days, I felt that nothing can be done here so I tried it on my own. Fortunately my phone had Mi Cloud facility which I had linked with my email. If anyone tries to insert new SIM into my phone, the number will be displayed in Mi Cloud. After getting the number, I got the photo of the person through WhatsApp and got his name through Facebook. The person with my phone was not the actual thief but he was a mobile shop owner in a village called Haridaposhi under Tigiria police limits in Cuttack district, who had received the phone from the thief. When I called him he first tried to mislead me but after I threatened that police is tracking him and told him about his details, he was frightened and promised to return my phone,” said Asutosh.

“The police is working at such a slow pace that anyone can destroy the phone in the mean time or send it somewhere else,” added Asutosh.

Meanwhile, sources said the police in its report has mentioned that it is still tracing the stolen mobile phone.