Copper cable worth lakhs missing from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited premises in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: Another case of security breach and theft has been reported from the premises of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In a recent incident, unidentified miscreants stole copper cable worth Rs 2.5 lakh, raising serious concerns about the security arrangement in HAL. HAL is considered to be a high security zone as the defence public sector undertaking is into production of defence aviation requirements.
According to a complaint filed by Suresh (63), an HR official working in Mavin Switchgears and Control Pvt Ltd, unidentified misreants stole a 580-metre-long copper cable worth Rs 2.5 lakh from the Maintenance Repair & Operations (MRO) division in HAL premises.
Suresh told the police that his company got a tender to install 11 KV cable network in HAL, it had kept the copper cable and other requisite materials in the MRO division. Miscreants stole the 16 sq/mm x 4 core cable between April 2 to April 3.
The incident came to light on the morning of April 4, around 11 am, when Suresh and other employees of his company visited the MRO division. Suresh then filed a complaint with the HAL police.
An investigating officer from HAL said, “As of now, we do not have any clues. When we visited the spot, we found that there were some security lapses. So, we served a notice to Mavin Switchgears and Control Pvt Ltd and asked them to deploy security guards from their company to guard their materials till the work is complete. A security guard has been deployed now.”
The police officer also said that they were going to issue a notice to HAL officials asking for details about the security breach. “We will take details of the staff who worked on April 2 and 3, and subject them to an inquiry.
We will ask them for CCTV camera footage installed in the MRO division and the entry and exit points to get some clues,” the officer added. Police say they suspect the role of labourers who come to pick up waste from HAL or water suppliers in the incident. “Similar incidents have occured in the past where support staff were involved. However, we cannot rule out the possibility of HAL staff having joined hands with the thieves as well,” police said.
PAST INCIDENTS
- January 2019 - A tractor driver hired to remove debris was caught with more than 9 kg of copper wires from HAL’s engine division.
- April 2018 - G Yogesh, a driver, and his helper were caught while stealing 40.5 kg aluminium from Aircraft centre
- July 2018 - 1,050 kg of nickel and titanium was stolen by a group of persons from Sky Enterprises, who had taken a scrap contract