Telangana cops arrest 9 for stealing Airtel, Jio cell tower equipment

Hyderabad: The sleuths of the Commissioner’s Task Force, South Zone Team, Hyderabad along with Kachiguda Police and Adibatla Police have apprehended an interstate gang consisting of nine persons who stole telecommunications equipment worth Rs 60 lakhs such as RRUs (Remote Radio Unit), RRHs (Remote Radio Heads), BBUs (Base Band Units) tower cable wires of Airtel and JIO networks from different places in Telangana State.

The arrested have been identified as Banavath Naga Raju (23) and Maloth Nagesh (24) from Telangana. They worked as tower riggers of Airtel networks. Another is Chukkolu Shiva (22), a student. The others are Dilshad Malik (24), Chand Malik (29), Shaharyan Malik (20) and Sohail Malik (20).

They all are residents of Meerut, UP. The ones involved in the theft at Jio Networks include Neerudu Chaitanya (33) a project manager at Jio Network and Lavoori Ravi Naik (27). Both are residents of Nalgonda.

Theft of Airtel equipment

Naga Raju and Nagesh are natives of Suryapet district. After completing their studies, they came to Hyderabad for their livelihood and started residing in the LB Nagar area.

Both worked as tower riggers of Airtel Networks, under the sub-contractor of Airtel Networks (Summit Enterprises) owned by J Venkata Ramana for a monthly salary.

However, to earn easy money and lead a lavish life they hatched a plan to commit theft of RRUs, base bands of cellphone towers of Airtel Networks and cable wires of Airtel Works from their working sites along with their assistant engineer Ashok of Airtel Networks.

Accordingly, they committed theft of RRUs, BBUs and cellphone tower cable wires from different places i.e. Khairathabad, Kachiguda, SR Nagar, Madhura Nagar of Hyderabad City Police Commissionerate, Meerpet, Vanasthalipuram, Nagole, Hayath Nagar of Rachakonda Police Commissionerate, and Shamshabad, Balanagar of Cyberabad Police Commissionerate.

Later, all the theft stolen equipment was sold to Shiva. Subsequently, Shiva would sell to Dilshad Malik, Chand Malik, Shaharyan Malik, and Sohail Malik. They were staying in Hyderabad managing a computer scrap business.

Theft of Jio equipment

Neerudu Chaitanya and Ravi Naik came to Hyderabad for their livelihood. Later, both joined Jio Networks as tower riggers. Later, the accused Ravi Naik quit and started working as an auto driver. Chaitanya and Ravi Naik hatched a plan to commit theft of RRHs of Jio Networks from the working sites.

Accordingly, they committed theft of RRHs (Remote Radio Heads) of Jio Networks under the limits of Adibatla and BDL Bhanur PSs respectively.

Cases have been registered and further investigation is on.