Police catch gang that steal highly expensive equipment from telecom towers

A BTech graduate working at a mobile tower maintenance firm, a former bouncer, a Delhi-based businessman and three scrap dealers, all part of a gang specialised in stealing remote radio units (RRUs), batteries and other equipment from the telecom towers, were arrested from Ghaziabad on Friday for committing more than hundred thefts in UP, Maharashtra, Bengal, Bihar, MP, and Delhi-NCR.

Police recovered highly expensive RRUs — trans-receivers that transmit and receive mobile signals and cost over Rs 6 lakh per unit— and other devices worth Rs 4 crore from their possession.

Additional DCP (crime branch) Sachidanand said a police team was set up to track the gang following a rise in complaints of thefts from mobile towers over the past few weeks. The men — Rahul Goel, Kaif Malik, Sumit Kasana, Shoaib, Sohail Malik and Wasim Alvi — were nabbed following a tip-off on Thursday.

Six other gang members — Zubair, Altaf, Naeem, Mehrajuddin, Javed, and his brother Wasim — are still absconding, police said.

Kaif, who dropped out of BA first year in 2021 and joined his father’s scrap shop in Delhi’s Mustafabad, told interrogators that he came in touch with Shoaib who incentivized him to sell the equipment in exchange for significant profit.

“As Kaif began looking for a buyer of stolen RRUs, he met Javed, who is absconding at the moment. Slowly, the three men got the other accused on board and formed a gang,” the officer said.

According to police, Sumit was graduate and had spent nearly four years preparing for police recruitment exams before taking up a job as a bouncer at a Delhi club. About four years ago, he met Javed at this club and was hired as a transporter. He later helped Javed and the gang transport the stolen devices.

Rahul, police said, is a maintenance manager at a private firm that maintains mobile towers for last four years and was posted in Bengal. A BTech from Roorkee, his job was to collaborate with the firm’s operation and maintenance staff from Bihar, MP and Rajasthan for stealing RRUs and supplying it to the gang.

Sohail, who got into scrap work in Mustafabad after his dairy business did not take off, assisted the gang in identifying mobile towers and selling stolen equipment, police said.

Shoaib ran a wholesale cosmetics business in Mustafabad. He was acquainted with Sohail and Kaif, and had started buying and selling RRUs on their advice.

Wasim Alvi, police said, was working at his father’s scrap shop in Noida’s Sorkha before befriending Sohail and joining the gang.

Investigators said four members of the gang —Sohail, Wasim Alvi, Zubair and Altaf — would collect scrap by the day in Delhi-NCR and identify mobile towers. After sundown, the gang members would steal equipment from the tower. Sohail would arrange for vehicles.

The accused were booked under the IPC sections 380 (theft) and 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence. ToI