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South Zone Task Force, Hyderabad, along with Kacheguda and Adibatla Police on Tuesday nabbed an interstate gang of nine persons involved in theft of Remote Radio Unit (RRUs), Remote Radio Heads (RRHs), Base Band Units (BBUs) and cell tower cable wires of Airtel and Jio networks worth ₹60 lakh across Telangana.
Banavath Nagaraju, 23, Maloth Nagesh, 24, Chukkolu Shiva, 22, Dilshad Malik, 24, Chand Malik, 29, Shaharyan Malik, 20, Sohail Malik, 20, Neerudu Chaitanya, 33 and Lavoori Ravi Naik, 27 have been arrested.
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Upon investigation, it has been found that Nagaraju and Nagesh, both working as Tower Riggers at Airtel Networks, Hyderabad, stole the said equipment from their working sites along with their Assistant Engineer Ashok and further sold it to Shiva, a student from Saroornagar in Hyderabad. It was further sold to customers through a computer scrap business run by Dilshad, Chand, Shaharyan and Sohail, officials explained. The four are natives of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh and currently running this business in Hyderabad.
As many as 11 cases have been filed between January 11, 2024 to March 25 across Kacheguda, Khairatabad, SR Nagar, Madhura Nagar, Meerpet, Vanasthalipuram, Nagole , Hayathnagar, Balanagar and Shamshabad in relation to theft of equipment related to Airtel network.
In another such case, Jio Network tower rigger Neerudu Chaitanya and ex-worker-turned auto driver Ravi Naik stole RRHs from their working sites in Adibatla and BDL Bhanur. The police have seized 13 Airtel 4G RRUs, one Airtel 5G RRU, eight Jio 4G RRH, 600 metres cable wire and 10 cell phones from the gang.
“A case has been filed under the Section 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code by the Kacheguda Police. Further investigation will be taken up by the respective police stations where cases against the individuals were filed,” said S. Rashmi Perumal, DCP Task Force.