Scindia lauds collaborative efforts of DoT & State / UT police and continuous enhancements in the Sanchar Saathi features, increasing recoveries
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s flagship citizen centric initiative Sanchar Saathi has recently crossed significant milestones in recovering lost/ stolen mobile handsets. Sanchar Saathi has helped to recover more than 75,000 mobile handsets in a month on pan-India basis for the first time since its inception. This accomplishment highlights growing public trust in the initiative, showcases citizen empowerment through technology-driven governance, and reflects strong coordination among DoT, telecom service providers (TSPs), and police departments across States and Union Territories.
DoT, through the collaborative efforts, is capturing the feedback of stakeholders for continuous enhancements in the ecosystem focused at increase in recoveries. Major enhancements undertaken to achieve the feat are enumerated as follows:
- Citizens are provided with the name of police station in the traceability reports through SMS, email and at the portal & App.
- Details of SIM inserting in lost/ stolen mobile handsets are made available to the police authorities including alternate mobile number for increasing the recoveries.
- Citizens are advised through the SMS for factory reset of the recovered mobile handset for safeguarding from any suspected malware.
This achievement is the outcome built on a strong foundation and continuous enhancements in the system. DoT's Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) & its field units- LSAs and Police personnel across States/UTs are working in close coordination to ensure devices are efficiently traced and returned to their rightful owners. The dedicated efforts of DoT and State/ UT police have led to significant rise of 201% in monthly handset recoveries from April 2025 to July 2026 as depicted under:
The significant mark is the result of a robust &, indigenous platform, integrated automated workflows and real-time device traceability. A lost/ stolen handset can be reported by the citizen on Sanchar Saathi in simple steps through web portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in) or the Mobile App. Once reported the mobile handsets is blocked in Indian telecom network preventing the misuse of such devices. Any attempt to use the lost/ stolen handset is captured by the network generating alert to the citizen and the police station for recovering and return to rightful owner.
Through Sanchar Saathi, DoT remains committed to empowering citizens and protecting digital assets, in alignment with the Government’s Digital India vision. Citizens are encouraged to report lost or stolen mobile phones via the Sanchar Saathi portal or mobile app available as follows:
For Android:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dot.app.sancharsaathi
For iOS:https://apps.apple.com/in/app/sanchar-saathi/id6739700695
