Three held for stealing batteries from cellphone towers in Noida, G Noida
The police said that Anoop was the leader of the group and he was previously employed as a technician for cellphone towers by a company in Gujarat.
Three members of a gang allegedly involved in stealing batteries from cellphone towers in Noida and Greater Noida were arrested in Kasna on Saturday. The police said that the trio would first look for an unmanned tower and then lay hands on the batteries, which they would sell to scrap dealers.
The police identified the accused as Rahul Kumar, 27 and Anoop, 30, residents of Mathura and Munish, 28, of Tappal in Aligarh.
The police said that Anoop was the leader of the group and he was previously employed as a technician for cellphone towers by a company in Gujarat.
Superintendent of police (rural), Gautam Budh Nagar, Suniti said that the police had received more than 20 complaints from different cellphone companies about battery theft from their towers. Most of these towers are located in fields and there is no deployment of security guards. She said that the companies had expressed their inability to ensure deployment of guards at each tower.
The complainants were asked to install CCTV cameras at the towers to keep a check on such activities.
Suniti said, “A week ago, a battery of a mobile tower in Dadri area was stolen. We were able to identify Anoop from the footage of the CCTV camera installed there. A team was formed to nab these criminals.”
The police said that they received a tipoff on Saturday about the movement of some men near Jagat Farm in Greater Noida.
“The three accused were travelling in a Mahindra Scorpio and a Hyundai Creta. The police team signalled them to stop but they tried to flee after opening fire at the police. The police party retaliated and forced them to stop. The vehicles were checked and 25 stolen batteries and three countrymade revolvers were recovered,” said Amit Kumar Shrivastava, circle officer, Greater Noida-1.
The police said that during questioning, it was revealed that Anoop and Rahul have completed their graduation while Munish has completed class 12.
The police said that Munish would conduct a recce of towers, after which the others would steal batteries at night. The market price of each battery is Rs2 lakh, while the accused sold them in scrap markets between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000.
The trio confessed to their involvement in thefts and disclosed that they sold the stolen batteries to a scrap dealer identified as Sunny, who is absconding.