2 held for stealing parts of mobile towers: Cops

Two men, including a former employee of a telecom company, were arrested for allegedly stealing parts of mobile towers in Delhi, police said on Friday.The accused have been identified as Deepak (23) and Dhanpal (22), residents of Sant Nagar, Burari, they added.

Deepak is a former employee of a telecom company while Dhanpal is his neighbour and school friend, police said.

On June 14, a case was registered at the Civil Lines police station regarding the theft of the base band from a mobile tower installed on the roof of a house in Aruna Nagar, a senior police officer said.

Police zeroed in on the accused after going through the CCTV footage obtained from the area and on the basis of secret information, and arrested them, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.

According to police, Deepak was employed by the telecom firm in 2017 and he used to repair mobile towers. He lost his job after he met with an accident three months ago. He had fallen from a mobile tower and after this incident, the company removed him from his job, police said. Deepak’s father had also met with an accident at work and was not in a condition to work anymore, police said.

Deepak hatched a plan to steal plates from mobile towers as he knew about a place where these stolen plates could be sold, they added.

Along with his associate, Deepak used to carry out reconnaissance of the locations where mobile towers were installed. They used to get access to a tower after telling the owner of the house that they were sent by the company for maintenance and repairing. They used to steal four plates at a time. The cost of these plates is around `3 lakh and the accused used to sell those for around `30,000.