BERHAMPUR: Aska police busted a gang involved in stealing batteries from mobile towers in Ganjam's Bhanjanagar sub-division and arrested four persons in this connection on Sunday night.
The arrested are Aditya Behera (25) and his brother Satya Narayan Behera (27) of Jhadabandha village besides receivers of the stolen batteries Lipun Nayak of Hinjili and Ram Dasgupta of Berhampur. Batteries worth around Rs 40 lakh were recovered from their possession.
Aska IIC Prashant Kumar Sahu said that over a dozen cases of battery theft were reported in Bhanjanagar, Aska, Hinjili, Kabisuryanagar and Purusottampur police stations in the last three months. On the direction of Ganjam SP Brijesh Roy, a special police team was formed to nab the battery thieves.
Police first apprehended Aditya who was working for a mobile service provider and had expertise in operating the towers. During interrogation, he confessed to his crime. A mobile tower has 24 batteries each costing around Rs 40,000.
The IIC said that taking advantage of the absence of CCTV cameras and security guards at the mobile towers, Aditya stole the batteries with help of his brother Satya.
After stealing the batteries from various locations, the duo sold those to scrap dealers at Hinjili and Berhampur. Basing on the confession of the siblings, police raided the scrap godowns of Lipun at Hinjili and Ram at Berhampur. During search, 253 batteries were recovered from the two scrap dealers. The accused were produced in court on Monday. Further investigation is underway.