JOWAI: West Jaintia Hills police busted a group of gang who were involved in stealing mobile tower batteries worth Rs 10 lakh from a rented house in Ladthadlaboh area near Mooralong Jowai. Police arrested six of the members mostly from Assam while two others escaped.
The District Police based on a tip off raided the house and arrested all six persons and seized as many as 148 batteries out of which 107 of them have been broken into pieces to sell them as scrap material.
The batteries which mainly has content of lead and copper were extracted and transported to lower Assam. These batteries were stolen from mobile towers erected by Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone in various parts of East and West Jaintia Hills.
The arrested persons were identified as Nujammil Ali (48) from Karimganj, Surujamal Ali (20) of Kamrup Asssam, Abduch Chalam of Krihamari, Barchuliya, Asssam, Fulchan Ali (30) of Karihamari, Nur Hussain Ali, Kamrup and Raham Ali (63) a scrap dealer from Nalbari, Assam.
There were several complaints from different mobile service provided in various police stations against battery theft in West and East Jaintia Hills District.