Lost Phone Police Complaint: IMEI & CEIR Guide

One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.

Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.

TL;DR: A lost phone police complaint is only half the job. The record has to be right, and if the police noted IMEI 2 instead of IMEI 1, that can be corrected with a short written application to the same station. Register the handset on CEIR as soon as the portal lets you, and remember that Lost Mode is not a block.

Nikhil Menon was on a crowded platform at Pune railway station when he realised the phone was gone. Not in his jacket. Not in his bag. Gone. He rang his own number twice. It rang out once, then went to voicemail.

He filed a complaint at the Kothrud police station that same evening. The officer on duty wrote it up quickly, took an IMEI number off the retail box, and handed him a copy. Two days later Nikhil spotted the problem. The handset ran a physical SIM and an eSIM, and the number typed into the complaint was IMEI 2, the eSIM slot, not the primary IMEI that the CEIR system matches against. Lost Mode was already switched on, but the screen said it would activate only when the device came online next. Which, so far, it hadn't.

He first tried to sort it out himself. That went nowhere. He then approached the Chamber of Advocate Sudhir Rao. The office filed a one-page application at the same police station asking for a correction on record, and made sure the CEIR request carried the IMEI the system actually reads. Advocate Sudhir Rao's familiarity with how these complaints and the CEIR process work is what moved the correction through and put the matter in the client's favour.

Key Facts of the Case

• Handset lost at a railway station in Pune on the evening of 12 April 2025.
• Device was dual-SIM: one physical SIM and one eSIM, so it carried two IMEI numbers.
• The police complaint recorded IMEI 2 (the eSIM slot) instead of the primary IMEI.
• Lost Mode was switched on immediately, but activation was pending the device connecting to the internet.
• The CEIR request was filed after the short waiting window required for the number to receive an OTP.
• The client was the complainant throughout; there
• The client was the complainant throughout; nobody at any stage treated him as a suspect.
• The retail box was still with him, and it carried the IMEI the officer had copied down.

Here is the thing about that evening at Kothrud. The complaint was registered, a copy was handed over, and on paper the client had done everything right. The error was one digit-slot in a fifteen-digit number, and it quietly broke the only part of the process that matters.

Does a lost phone police complaint get your handset back?

No. Not by itself. A complaint does not summon the phone back, and no police station in the country has a switch that makes a stolen handset reappear. What the complaint does is create a record with a date and a number, and that record is the key to everything else, including the IMEI block.

That is why the IMEI typed into it has to be the right one. If it isn't, the CEIR request is matching the wrong number against the telecom network, and the device stays usable on every Indian operator.

What changes if you hold the wrong IMEI

A lost phone police complaint is usually filed for three reasons, and a wrong IMEI damages all three.

• Blocking. The Central Equipment Identity Register, run through the Sanchar Saathi portal, blacklists an IMEI across operators. It needs the IMEI as recorded in the police complaint. Feed it the wrong one and the block lands nowhere.
• Insurance and warranty. Most policies want a police complaint copy with the IMEI that appears on the invoice. A mismatch invites a query you cannot answer.
• Your own protection. If the handset resurfaces in a fraud or a crime months later, the first question is when you reported it and what you reported. A complaint with the wrong IMEI is a weak answer.

IMEI 1, IMEI 2 and dual-SIM handsets

Every handset has at least one IMEI, a fifteen-digit identity number. A dual-SIM phone has two, one per SIM slot. On most dual-SIM devices the physical SIM slot is IMEI 1 and the eSIM or second slot is IMEI 2, though manufacturers are not obliged to follow that order and some don't.

Which one matters? The one the phone used to attach to the network. If you were running on the physical SIM, the network saw IMEI 1. A complaint recording IMEI 2 points the machinery at a number the device was not using.

Dial *#06# on the handset to see both, or check Settings, then About. Photograph the screen. Keep the retail box. Both are proof of the correct number, and both are what a correction application needs.

How to correct the IMEI in a complaint already filed

There is no special form and no separate statute for this. It is an administrative correction to a record the same police station created, and in practice it is done by written application.

What the application should contain

• The complaint or FIR number and its date, quoted exactly as printed on your copy.
• The wrong IMEI as recorded, and the correct IMEI you want substituted.
• Proof: photograph of the box, purchase invoice, or the *#06# screen showing both numbers.
• One line asking that the correction be carried into the record and that the CEIR or Sanchar Saathi details be updated to match.
• Your name, address, phone number and signature at the foot.

Hand it in at the same station, in duplicate. Ask for a receipt or a stamp on your copy, and note the name and designation of the officer who takes it. That acknowledgement is the document you will produce if the correction is later disputed.

If the station will not do it

Escalate in writing, in this order:

• A written representation to the Station House Officer, referring to the earlier application and its date.
• If that fails, to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer or the Deputy Commissioner of Police for the zone.
• Under the BNSS, a person aggrieved by a refusal to register information about a cognizable offence may send the substance of that information in writing to the Superintendent of Police.
• Where the police simply do not act, an application to the jurisdictional Magistrate seeking a direction for investigation. This is the successor to what was earlier an application under Section 156(3) of the old Code.

None of this is fast. A correction application that nobody contests is usually a matter of days to a couple of weeks. An escalation through the DCP or the SP runs into weeks, sometimes months, and each level wants the earlier acknowledgement attached.

CEIR and Sanchar Saathi: what blocking does and does not do

The CEIR block is a blacklist shared with telecom operators. Once the IMEI is on it, the handset cannot register on Indian networks. It cannot make calls, send messages or use mobile data on any Indian SIM.

What it does not do: it does not erase your data, it does not track the phone, and it does not tell you where the device is. Those are separate requests, and tracing works only if the device is switched on and on a network. If the phone is recovered, the block can be lifted through the same portal with the police document showing recovery.

File the blocking request as soon as the complaint copy is in your hand. There is nothing to gain by waiting, and a handset that gets factory reset and resold before the block lands is a handset you will not see again.

Lost Mode is not a block

Switching on Lost Mode through Find My or Find My Device is sensible and you should do it. It is not a substitute for the IMEI block. Lost Mode takes effect only when the handset next connects to the internet, and if it is wiped before that moment, the message never arrives. A network-level block is the only thing that survives a factory reset, because it operates on the identity of the device rather than on what is stored inside it.

What the BNSS requires, briefly

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 has been in force since 1 July 2024 and governs how your complaint is registered.

• Theft is a cognizable offence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, so a station can register an FIR without a Magistrate's order.
• Information about a cognizable offence is recorded under Section 173 of the BNSS, and the BNSS recognises information given in electronic form, subject to your signature being taken within three days.
• You are entitled to a copy of the recorded information free of cost.
• If a station decides the matter is only a lost-article entry and logs it in the station diary instead, ask which of the two you have been given. Both can serve the CEIR paperwork, but an FIR is the stronger record if the phone later turns up in someone else's hands.

If the handset eventually becomes evidence, the electronic records around it, such as the CEIR request ID, the portal acknowledgement and the complaint copy, have to travel with the certificate route for electronic records under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, the provision that replaced the old Section 65B certificate. Keep originals of the invoice and the box. Do not hand over the only copy of anything.

When there may be nothing left to argue

Honesty is cheaper than a wasted consultation. If the complaint already records the correct IMEI, the CEIR request has been accepted, and the handset never reconnects to any network, there is no legal lever remaining. Investigation of a single lost handset sits low on the priority list of any station, and no court is going to order a forensic hunt for one phone. Where there was no invoice and no box, proving the correct IMEI becomes harder, though the device settings screen or your operator's records can sometimes fill the gap.

The correction case in our office worked because the record was fixable and the box was still in the client's drawer. That is not a guarantee for anyone else. It is simply what the file allowed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Facing a similar matter? Speak to a criminal lawyer in Delhi — Advocate Sudhir Rao appears in bail, trial and appellate matters before the Delhi District Courts, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.