Technology has its own advantages and disadvantages in today’s world. In some situations, it can be a boon if used wisely. Gadgets like smartwatches have become quite common nowadays as they come with many smart features including tracing the last location of your smartphone. This feature came in handy to Pallavi Kaushik, when a thief tried to steal her smartphone the previous month.
What really happened?
A report in Hindustan Times claims, that a woman named Pallavi Kaushik (28) who is a resident of Palam Vihar, sector 28, chased a thief who ran away after snatching her mobile phone. he grabbed it back from him after punching him in the head.
The incident happened in August and an FIR was also filed, though it got registered this Monday. Pallavi who works as a senior merchandiser with a city-based firm was buying groceries at the Huda market in the neighborhood when the incident took place at around 6 pm on the 28th of August.
The FIR reads that Pallavi saw a man peering over her shoulder while she paid the bill via UPI. Suddenly, he snatched her phone and ran away. She raised the alarm but no one came forward to help her. Pallavi chased him for some distance but he managed to run away.
She then decided to use her smartwatch to track her mobile phone’s location. Her watch kept beeping to show that her phone was near her. This was courtesy of the ‘Find My Phone’ app that is found on smartwatches to know the last location of the connected mobile phone.
Pallavi wandered the streets for almost 3 hours and finally found the exact location of her smartphone around 9 PM. The man was sitting on a parked motorcycle and was using her phone when she tracked him. She approached the man stealthily from behind and punched him hard in the head. The man tried to run and the phone fell from his hands.
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Pallavi picked up the phone and returned home. She filed an FIR at the Palam Vihar police station the next day. Although she got her phone back, she still suffered a loss of money as the man used her UPI pin to transfer Rs. 50,865 from her bank account to other accounts during the time she was looking for her phone.
What happened next?
The police have filed an FIR under sections 379 (theft), 379A (snatching), and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. The thief is yet to be arrested. When asked about why there was a delay in registering the FIR, Manoj Kumar, assistant commissioner of police said, “I came to know about the complaint on Monday and immediately directed the FIR registration. Necessary action will be taken against the person found responsible for the delay.”
“We have got details about a few bank accounts of a private firm in Mumbai into which the suspect had transacted money using Pallavi’s phone. Police are trying to nab him,” he added.
