Farmers bust gang involved in theft of transformer oil

A large number of farmers who were worried over frequent incidents of theft of oil from Powercom transformers installed in their fields in Panjwar, Bhojian, Bhojaran Wala and other villages put up joint efforts to bust the gang involved in the theft incidents.

The farmers, while installing Thikri Pehra on the intervening night of January 26-27, succeeded in nabbing one of the two motorcycle-borne thieves with 40 litres of oil. The nabbed thief has been identified as Varinder Singh Rinda, a resident of Bhojian, who was handed over to the Chabal police. ASI Kanwaljit Singh said that a case under Section 303 (2), 317 (2) and 324 (3) of BNS has been registered against the gang with the arrest of Rinda.

The farmers formed a team comprising Charanjit Singh, Manjinder Singh, Dilbag Singh, Tejinder Singh, Jagroop Singh, Paramjit Singh and Harjit Singh who started installing Thikri Pehra (keeping watch round the clock) and on the intervening night of January 26-27, the team nabbed one of the two motorcycle-borne suspects with the stolen oil and handed him over to the police.

Farmer Charanjit Singh said that in a single night, the thieves stole oil from five transformers installed in the fields of farmer Harjit Singh in Panjwar village, the cost of which was estimated at Rs 3 lakh.

The farmers said that the theft of cable wire and other material has become routine with the thieves, causing a huge loss to the farmers. The farmers said that they had been complaining to the police to take steps to check the theft but nothing had happened in the last few months. The farmers said that they would continue to keep a close watch on the thieves in future too.