Lost your mobile phone? C-DoT's Sanchar Saathi portal will help block it

C-DoT has launched a service that will help you block your stolen or lost mobile phone device. Once blocked it will not work on any mobile network in India

The Centre for Development of Telematics, better known as C-DoT, the technology arm of the Department of Technology (DoT), has recently launched the Sanchar Saathi portal that allows users to block and track their lost/stolen mobile phones across the country. C-DoT has been piloting the service in some telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and North East. Now, the service can be used across the country.

Users who have lost their phones can block their devices temporarily using the IMEI number of the device. Once the phone gets blocked, it will become unusable and will not work on any telecom service provider's network across India.

Users can follow the below steps to block the stolen/lost device using the Sanchar Saathi portal:

Go To Sanchar Saathi Portal

A user can employ any web browser to visit https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/. The site works for both mobile phones and desktops.

Find the 'Block your lost/stolen mobile' option

The user should browse the website and click "Block your lost/stolen mobile" under the "Citizens Citizen Centric Services" section.

After pressing the red button, a form will appear on the screen with three fields -- Device Information, Lost Information and Mobile Owner Personal information.

There are some prerequisites which are essential to fill this form.

These are:

A police complaint and the complaint number

Both IMEI numbers of the phone (applicable only in case of dual SIM phones)

Another phone number on which the user can receive the OTP

Accept the declaration and submit

Once the user is done with the form, he/she/they can accept the declaration and hit the Submit button.

Unblocking the device

Once a device has been blocked, it won't work with any SIM card nationwide. This means if the thief has thrown the user's SIM card out and has tried to put his own SIM card in the device, the device won't operate.

If the device is found using the Sanchar Saathi portal, the phone can be unblocked again by the device owner. To unblock the device, the users should follow the steps mentioned above and select the Green button: Un-Block Found Mobile.

The user should enter the request-id, and mobile number (which was given for OTP/notifications), select the reason to unblock, fill in the captcha and click on "Get OTP". 

After this, the user should enter the OTP received and click on the Submit button to register for an unblock request.