A gang of four, who stole batteries from Bescom's electric poles, have been arrested by Malleswaram police.
Police have recovered around 100 batteries worth Rs 5 lakh, two autorickshaws and a mini goods vehicle from the gang.
The arrested were identified as Chinni Dorai, owner of a scrap shop, his associates Ramesh, Venugopal and Vasanth, all three working as drivers. A police team headed by inspector Chandrashekar M zeroed in on the gang while investigating into the complaint filed by Manjunath, a Bescom assistant engineer attached with Malleswaram sub-division, on August 8.
In his complaint, Manjunath stated that some unknown miscreants had stolen around six batteries from the Ring Main Unit (RMU) boxes of electric poles near the Government College on 18th Cross, Malleswaram, early in the morning on August 8.
Police said Chinni, who is from Tamil Nadu, runs a scrap shop in Kogilu Cross near Yelahanka. The three other accused persons are also from Tamil Nadu. A few years ago they came to Bengaluru and worked as drivers, riding autorickshaws and goods vehicles. Chinni had helped them to come to Bengaluru and find work.
Police said in a bid to make quick and easy money, Chinni hatched a plan to steal batteries. He asked the trio to steal them from Bescom's RMU boxes. The trio used to move around the city in their vehicles and identify the RMU boxes fixed on electric poles. They stole the batteries from the poles at night.
Then they would handover stolen batteries to Chinni. He used to pay around Rs 200 to Rs 300 for each battery to the trio. Chinni in-turn sold the batteries to his customers. He used to charge around Rs 200 per kg. Each battery weighed around six kg, so Chinni used to make Rs 1,200 by selling it.
With these arrests, the police have solved around 11 cases registered at Malleswaram, Srirampura, Seshadripuram, Sadashivanagar, Vyalikaval, Varthur, Girinagar and Halasuru.