The police on Thursday night arrested two men involved in stealing iron rods from various industrial areas in the city, Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh. According to them, they allegedly recovered 2,200 tonnes of iron rods and one truck from the thieves’ possession.

The police said a raid was conducted in Sikanderpur area in DLF Phase-3 where these drivers were found unloading iron rods from trucks. It was discovered that the gang was operating in connivance with truck drivers, cleaners and weighing bridge staff members. The suspects were identified as Ali Bahadur and Alamgir of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

“The gang used to unload tonnes of iron rods from every truck coming from industrial areas, and place iron ingots of the same tonnage, gunny bags of sand or bricks on them to correct their weight readings,”Shamsher Singh, ACP (crime), said.

The police said the gang made lakhs of rupees every week using this modus operandi. A crime team conducted a raid and arrested them from Sikanderpur on Thursday night. The police had, on April 6, arrested eight members of this gang from Najafgarh in Delhi.

“These gang members used to intercept the trucks after they left the industrial areas. Their accomplices would unload iron bars and put scrap materials instead. Then the truck driver would get them checked at the weighing bridges to get a receipt and the theft would not be detected. It was a direct loss to the buyers but a 100% profit to these gang members,” Singh said.

First Published: Apr 20, 2019 06:34 IST