Bhubaneswar, Jan. 8 -- In a striking example of citizen-led problem-solving, a Mumbai-based software engineer successfully recovered her stolen mobile phone after local police allegedly failed to take prompt action, eventually leading to the exposure of a phone theft racket in the holy city.

Ankita Gupta, a software engineer from Mumbai, had her Samsung S-23 Ultra smartphone stolen on December 30 while she was visiting Varanasi. After discovering the theft, she approached the Bhelupur police station and lodged a complaint.

However, despite repeated follow-ups, the police were unable to trace the stolen device, prompting Ankita to take the investigation into her own hands.

Leveraging her technical expertise and with assistance from a fe...