New Delhi: Delhi Police has busted a racket involving the theft of remote radio units and other devices from mobile towers, which were then illegally sold overseas. The stolen units, totalling over 5,000 and valued at Rs 100 crore, were primarily sold to countries such as Hong Kong.
A special crackdown resulted in the arrest of 52 people and the seizure of nearly 700 remote radio units and base band units. Police also solved approximately 250 cases of theft. Four teams from the crime branch conducted 14 operations across India, even disguising themselves as labourers and workers to catch the culprits.
Remote radio units and base band units are critical components of mobile network infrastructure, enabling communication services like voice calls and data transmission. The theft of these devices disrupts network connectivity and causes significant financial losses to telecommunication companies.
Earlier, special commissioner of police (crime) Devesh Chandra Srivastava formed multiple teams under the guidance of DCPs Sanjay Sain and Vikram Singh. Additional CP (crime) Sanjay Bhatia, who supervised the entire operation, said they received several complaints related to the theft cases, and four teams were formed to conduct 14 operations across India.
"The arrested individuals, including technicians, middlemen and receivers, were part of a sophisticated network that targeted mobile towers in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam and West Bengal. The stolen equipment were often smuggled to other countries, particularly Hong Kong," Bhatia said.
One of the main accused was Sagar Bhatnagar, who received stolen equipment from Rajesh Shukla and Gurdeep for the last 1.5 years. "He previously sent about 3,000 remote radio units to Hong Kong after making the requisite documents under the pretext of electronic switches through airlines. During the investigation, a record of around 2,750 remote radio units was extracted from his office computer," Bhatia added.
Another accused, Zuber, along with his brother, who is currently in China, used to purchase the stolen remote radio units from various sellers in eastern UP and Bihar at Rs 70,000 per equipment. The sellers transported these equipment by trains, and Zuber collected them from various railway stations in Delhi. After collecting the equipment, he used to store and test them at his godown in Jhilmil. After testing, he used to pack these equipment separately in parcels.
Some of the arrested accused previously worked with telecom companies or with those who maintained the towers, another officer stated.