KURUKSHETRA: The crime investigation agency (CIA)-II of Kurukshetra police busted two gangs with arrests of 11 accused, active in stealing electrical transformers in the region, said district superintendent of police (SP) Surender Singh Bhoria.
He said that the complaints of transformer thefts were received in different police stations, which caused huge financial loss to farmers and the electricity department.
The police said the arrested accused have been identified as Manoj Kumar alias Lalu, Yashpal, Ashu, Iqbal, Mohammad Inam, Shiv Kumar, Karan, Shivam Chaurasia, Indal, all residents of Uttar Pradesh state and Pawan Kumar of Panipat and Deepak Kumar of Sonepat in Haryana.
The SP said Haryana police department had announced Rs 5,000 reward each for information on Shivam Chaurasia and Shiv Kumar, who were absconding from police custody since 2018.
All the accused were produced in the district court on Tuesday, which granted their 11-day police remand.
The SP said, a few days ago, CIA-II had arrested seven accused involved in a wire theft case in the Jhansa area and a heavy quantity of wire was recovered from their possession.
"The CIA-II team worked on the leads from the arrests of seven accused and now arrested 11 accused involved in transformer theft cases. These accused have confessed to committing 224 transformer thefts in Kurukshetra district and all of these were committed in the year 2022", said SP Surender Singh.
The SP said these gangs had committed 36 transformer thefts in Thanesar Sadar police station area, 38 in Babain, 33 in Ladwa, 73 in Shahabad, 18 in Jhansa, 4 in Krishna Gate, 11 in Kurukshetra University area, 3 in Pehowa Sadar, 8 in Ismailabad.
Revealing their modus operandi, Kurukshetra SP Surender Singh said that most of the accused were presently living in Delhi and they travelled from there in bus or train.
"The accused had parked bicycles near Shahabad bus stand and Kurukshetra railway station. They had six bicycles, of which 4 were parked in Shahabad and 2 in Kurukshetra. The accused wore black colour clothes to reduce their visibility and committed offence in the agricultural fields during the night hours between 12 am to 3 am. One of their accomplices reached them in an Ertiga car upon theft and loaded the transformer in the vehicle. The accused went back to the bus stand and railway station and travelled back on bus or train", said the SP.
The police have recovered six bicycles, an Ertiga car, tools used to steal transformers and 35kg copper from the possession of accused people.
