In a major breakthrough, the Pampa police on Tuesday cracked the theft of cables worth ₹2.5 lakh from a BSNL phone tower located within the high-security zone of Sabarimala and arrested a seven-member gang of thieves from Idukki in this connection.
The arrested were identified as Ayyappadas, Vikraman, Shafeek, Ranjith, Akhil, Azim and Jaleel - all natives of Puliyanmala in Idukki. The first six accused were arrested from Puliyanmala and the seventh accused, Jaleel, was arrested from Pampa.
The theft, which took place on October 12 night, had caught the police and other security agencies on the back foot. According to the police, the thieves breached the security cover in the region and entered the location of the tower at Saramkuthi after 8.30 p.m. on the day. After inflicting damages to the tower, they made off with a huge volume of costly cables including 280 metres of RF cable, 35 metres of earth cable, 55 DC cables, 100 metres of landline cables, five pairs of landline cables, among other things.
Based on a complaint from the BSNL divisional engineer, the Pampa police lodged a case for theft and damaging public property. A special police team, constituted by the District Police Chief, launched a probe and traced the accused while examining the CCTV footage collected from the forest.
“The CCTV visuals collected from different points along the forest route between Pampa and Chalakkayam showed four men moving through the forest along the Chelikkuzhy region. A further examination unearthed the visuals of two men transporting the stolen cables, in different turns, through the forest and shifting it to a car parked by the roadside’’, explained an official.
Based on the finding, a forensic team along with a photographic unit and scientific investigation unit soon reached the spot and collected the evidence.
“The investigation team grilled the accused in detail and they confessed to the crime. A special team has been dispatched to Idukki for tracing the cables stolen by the accused,’’ the official added.
