2 arrested for stealing signal boosters from mobile phone towers

Two men, who worked for a private company installing mobile phone towers for Airtel in Delhi-NCR, have been arrested for stealing 17 signal boosters worth over Rs 50 lakh, police said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Amit Singh Tomar and Deepak Tomar, both natives of Hapur district, and have been active over the past six months, a senior officer said.

"They were arrested on Thursday near Dadri bus stand with 17 signal boosters after complaints were registered against them over missing network signal boosters from towers at several locations in Greater Noida and Noida," Superintendent of Police, Greater Noida, Ranvijay Singh said.

"One of the accused was working with a private company which was tasked with installation work of these signal boosters at towers. He was adequately skilled about installing and removing these devices, which costs Rs 3 lakh a set," he told reporters.

They have removed these devices from telecom towers in Ghaziabad and other districts of Uttar Pradesh, and further probe is underway to get more details on them.

Singh said that the duo had found buyers for these stolen devices in private residential buildings of NCR where they have sold these sets at lower costs.

"In times of distress, they also sold these devices to scrap dealers," he added.

At least half-a-dozen FIRs have already been registered against them in Gautam Buddh Nagar, while a fresh case under IPC sections 414 (assisting in concealment of stolen property), 379 (punishment for theft), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) was registered at Dadri police station.