Mapusa police arrested four persons from a gang of thieves involved in stealing underground electrical cables belonging to the Electricity Department. Two trucks full of stolen goods have been recovered.
The cables were a part of ongoing underground cabling work. The theft was uncovered through a coordinated effort by the Mapusa police team, which had been monitoring suspicious activities in the area.
The thieves are identified as Mohammad Rehan Ali (19 years) r/o Margao and n/o Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh; Saif Ali Khan (18) r/o Colvale; Firoz Abdul Rahim Khan (19) also r/o Colvale and n/o Nasik, Maharashtra; and Ramu Nandu Soni (21) r/o Ponda and n/o Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
The team also recovered 18 bunches of black electrical cables, 10 bags of damaged aluminum cables and tools such as hacksaw frames and gas cutters, indicating the thieves' methods of cutting and removing the cables.
North SP Akshat Kaushal said that the breakthrough came late last night when two thieves were arrested while they were in the process of stealing large quantities of underground cables in Carona, Aldona.
"We had been receiving information that certain thieves were involved in stealing electricity cables. Subsequently, we had put on a trap and managed to arrest them. Interrogations are on-going to understand how they used to dispose of this property, and who were the beneficiaries," he said.
A case under sections 303(2), 324(3), and 324(5) of the BNS Act, 2023 have been registered against them.
“We are laying extra emphasis on night time patrolling. As directed by CM (Pramod Sawant) and senior officers, we have increased our staff deployment at night. This success is an example of the recent efforts that the staff has put in," Kaushal said.
