Seven arrested in Sambal for stealing 30 quintals of electricity wire from warehouse

Seven people have been arrested in Sambal in connection with a major electricity wire theft case, police said. The accused, including the caretaker of the warehouse where the theft took place, have been sent to jail.

Police recovered more than 9 quintal 80 kilograms of electricity wire out of the 30 quintals that were stolen, along with cash, wire-cutting equipment, a Chhota Hathi vehicle and a WagonR car from the possession of the accused.

SP Vikas Chandra Tripathi disclosed details of the case at the police lines. The incident, which took place four days ago, falls under Kailadevi police station area in Sarangpur village.

During interrogation, police found that Gautam Singh, the warehouse caretaker, had himself hatched the conspiracy to steal the wire. According to police, Gautam met Anand Shukla, who spoke to him about selling electricity wire. Gautam then sent Shere Pathan of Sambal to show him the wire. After inspecting the wire at the warehouse, Shere Pathan said he would arrange a deal with a party from Delhi.

Police said Gautam's share was fixed at Rs 2 lakh. On the night of 27 August, people from Delhi arrived with vehicles and Gautam loaded the vehicles with two drums of new and two drums of old electricity wire from the warehouse, around 30 quintals of material in total.

When Gautam did not receive the agreed amount, police said, he fabricated a false story to mislead warehouse owner Sanjay Shrivastava. He told him that four criminals had caught him and cut approximately 30 quintals of wire from the warehouse, loaded them in vehicles and fled. Following this, at the owner's insistence, Gautam lodged a report at the police station based on the false robbery story.

During investigation, police identified the vehicles involved with the help of scientific evidence and CCTV footage. These included a Chhota Hathi and a WagonR car. As the probe progressed, police reached the accused.

Police recovered 9 quintal 80 kilograms of the stolen wire, wire-cutting equipment and Rs 25,000 cash.

Investigation also revealed that before the incident, the complainant had sold 2 quintals of electricity wire to Arshad, a scrap dealer from Moradabad, for Rs 27,000. Police recovered Rs 25,000 from this amount.

Police have arrested Ali Khan, Shamsul, Khushnood Ali, Gautam Singh, Purnendra, Arshad and Anand Shukla. All have been sent to jail after necessary legal action was taken against them.