The iPhone 16 series was available in stores in India from September 20 and people were seen in long queues outside mobile stores to get their hands on or a glimpse of the gadget across the country. The craze for iPhones in the country is well-known and has also led to people resorting to extreme measures to have the gadgets.
American smartphone and technology giant Apple on September 9 conducted its main annual event where it announced the launch of the next iPhones of the 16 series - with the gadget's prices starting at Rs 79,900 for the most basic model and going up to Rs 1,84,900 in India for their most advanced and flagship model - the iPhone 16 pro max.
The iPhone 16 series was available in stores in India from September 20 and people were seen in long queues outside mobile stores to get their hands on or a glimpse of the gadget across the country.
The craze for iPhones in the country is well-known and has also led to people resorting to extreme measures to have the gadgets.
A 30-year-old delivery man in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow was allegedly killed when he went to deliver an iPhone to a customer who was supposed to pay him Rs 1.5 lakh for the product, police said on Monday.
Police said the victim's body was dumped into the Indira Canal in Lucknow and a team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has been called to find it.
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Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Singh said Gajanan, from Chinhat, had ordered the iPhone worth about Rs 1.5 lakh from Flipkart and opted for COD (Cash on Delivery) payment option.
"On September 23, delivery boy, Bharat Sahu of Nishatganj, went to deliver the phone at his place where he was killed by Gajanan and his accomplice. After strangulating Sahu, they put his body in a sack and disposed it off in the Indira Canal," news agency PTI quoted him as saying.
When Sahu did not return home for two days, his family registered a missing persons complaint on September 25 at the Chinhat police station. While scanning Sahu's call details and trying to trace his location, police found Gajanan's number and managed to reach his friend Akash.
During interrogation, Akash confessed to the crime, the DCP fficer said.
As many as 26 iPhone 16 Pro Max models were seized by the customs officials from a woman passenger at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, officials said.
The woman had concealed the recently-launched hi-tech phones inside her vanity bag, wrapped in tissue papers, they said. The Pro Max is the top model in the iPhone 16 series.
Based on intelligence inputs, a lady passenger travelling from Hongkong to Delhi carrying 26 iPhone 16 Pro Max concealed inside her vanity bag (wrapped in tissue paper) was intercepted at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, PTI quoted the officials, who added that further investigation was underway.
The phones, attempted to have been smuggled into the country, are estimated to worth over Rs 37 lakh.