Tamil Nadu: Trio steals mobile tower, sells it to scrap dealer for Rs 6.5 lakh in Virudhunagar

COIMBATORE: Four months after thieves stole an iron bridge in Bihar, a gang dismantled a cellphone tower in Salem district and sold it for 6.5 lakh to a scrap dealer in Virudhunagar. Police arrested three of the seven suspects on Sunday.
The gang had dismantled the tower over two days, July 26 and 27, after showing Perumapalayam villagers some documents 'authorising' them to do so. The theft came to light when employees of the private company that maintained the tower turned up at the village. Parts of the tower were recovered from the scrap dealer.
Police said the tower had been erected more than a decade ago by Aircel on farmer Subramanian's field. The company paid him rent every month. This stopped in 2017. Then GTL, a network service provider, took over the tower and paid Subramanian rent till 2019. Though GTL stopped paying rent, its employees used to visit the tower once a month.
In July, the gang headed by an ex-Aircel employee, Saravanan, showed Subramanian some documents that said the private mobile operator had given them permission to dismantle the tower. However, the landowner told them to pay rent arrears before dismantling the tower. However, the gang showed the fake documents to the villagers and dismantled the tower and took it away in a truck.
S Umashankar, inspector of police, Vazhapadi, said the theft was revealed when GTL staff visited the site on July 29. They tried to locate the culprits on their own. When this failed, they lodged a complaint with the police on August 27. On Sunday police arrested K Nagamuthu, 35, of Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district; A Shanmugam, 33, of Alwarthirunagari in Tuticorin district; and S Rakesh Sharma, 38, of Vazhapadi in Salem district. They are on the lookout for the other four.