Ex-workers found stealing mobile tower equipment from Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP

Vijay C Roy/Aman Sood

Chandigarh/Patiala, June 11

Organised gangs of thieves, including ex-employees of private telecom companies, are stealing hi-tech equipment, Radio Receiver Units (RRUs), from Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and selling these in Bangladesh where it is reset, refurbished and sold online.

Dozens of FIRs have already been lodged by the telecom companies. In a latest case, the Patiala police have arrested an eight-member gang, seven of whom are former employees of different mobile network companies.

According to estimates, RRU thefts across the country are not only causing losses to the telecom players, but also affecting 4G/5G network expansion and disrupting mobile services, including network outage and call drops.

“An RRU is installed at mobile towers and is used as trans-receiver in telecommunications. It helps relay calls as well as messages. The abrupt removal of an RRU will lead to mobile signal outages”, said Patiala SSP Varun Sharma.

“Mobile companies have told us that this gang was responsible for call drops in the past few months. This gang is involved in more than 60 theft cases and we have recovered equipment worth Rs 1.5 crore”, he said.

“Accused Nawajis Khan is a scrap dealer, who bought stolen goods from his accomplices and sold these to other gangs operating in Delhi. The gang was recently active in Patiala, Rajpura, Faridkot, Abohar, Fazilka, Bathinda areas”, said CIA in-charge Shaminder .

The arrested accused have been identified as Subash Kumar and Jatinder Kumar of village Nanfar in Bihar, scrap dealer Nawajis Khan from Gwalior, operating from Rajpura, Jaswinder Singh of Rajpura, Mohit Kumar of Bijnor, Harbans Singh of Bathinda, Bhinda Singh and Gaurav Sood from Rajpura.

The cost of one RRU is between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. According to telecom operators, the highest theft cases occurred in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, followed by Delhi and Punjab. In Punjab, 1,167 devices have been stolen.

“Telecom service providers estimate losses of around Rs 800 crore due to these thefts since October 2023. It impacts the connectivity and mobile broadband service quality,” said a senior executive of a telecom company.

In May this year, when the Delhi Police busted a gang involved in theft of RRUs. The investigations reveal that the stolen equipment are being shipped as scrap to countries like China and Bangladesh, where it is reset, refurbished, and listed for resale online.