“Citizens need to know that they can approach the police, even the commissioner, through e-mails instead of waiting in queues at the police station. We promise that we will not look at jurisdiction when we take up a case,” said senior police inspector Shamsher Pathan.

Indeed, Ganguly had approached the Mumbai Police Commissioner. She had sent him an e-mail after filing a complaint with the railway police. “I still don’t know what made me write to him,” she says. It was the Commissioner who had roped in the Pydhonie police, sending them an e-mail, asking them to probe the theft.

The cellphone was stolen on June 13 from an employee of Ganguly’s office at Mandir Bazar. He was mugged on a train.

Two days after the theft, the Pydhonie police received an e-mail from the Commissioner. The same day, Pydhonie police naik Nitin Palande called on Ganguly. Two months later, on August 15, he telephoned her. “He just said, ‘Madam, do you remember me? Please come, we have got your phone’,” Ganguly says.

On Monday evening, the Pydhonie police were preparing a report to be sent to the commissioner. The railway police, Ganguly says, have been trying to evade her.

Once Ganguly had filed a complaint, the Pydhonie police used technology to track down the phone. Naiks Palande and Madhukar More and constable Ramchandra Rane sent the phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number to all service providers, asking them to track it.

“We found that two persons from Sewree had used the phone, having bought it second-hand. The service provider gave us technical information on the location and it took us some time to establish what had happened,” said constable Rane.

“If you buy a phone from a legitimate outlet with the right IMEI number, then no matter where you lose it, we will get it back for you,” senior inspector Pathan said.