Police bust racket involved in stealing CCTV camera batteries, arrest four in Amritsar
Batteries from two junctions stolen
The Amritsar city police on Thursday arrested four persons for stealing and illegally purchasing batteries installed in surveillance cameras under the Smart City Project, dealing a blow to a gang targeting the city’s CCTV infrastructure.
According to the police, a case was registered at the cantonment police station on the complaint of KEC International Ltd., Mumbai, the executing agency for the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) project. It reported that during inspections conducted on the night of January 7 and 8, 12V SMF batteries were found missing from surveillance junctions number 149 and 150, falling under the jurisdiction of the cantonment police station.
The arrested accused have been identified as Satnam Singh, a resident of Ghannupur Kale village, Kashmir Singh Jaju of Milap Avenue on Sher Shah Suri Road, Amrik Singh of Gali Thane Wali in the Japani Mill area and Chander Parkash of Ram Nagar Colony, Islamabad. The police seized 17 batteries, apart from seizing a white Mahindra Bolero allegedly used in the crime.
During interrogation, Satnam and Kashmir confessed to stealing the batteries and revealed that they sold the stolen items to Amrik and Chander. Acting on this disclosure, the police arrested the remaining two accused and seized 10 batteries from Amrik and seven from Chander.
Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that all seized batteries belonged to surveillance cameras installed under the Smart City Project. The accused have been brought on police remand and further interrogation is underway to ascertain the full extent of the network involved in such thefts.
The ICCC project, launched under the Smart City Mission at a cost of Rs 105 crore, has repeatedly come under attack from thieves, thereby severely hampering Amritsar’s surveillance system.
Over the past 26 months, miscreants have stolen nearly 800 batteries worth approximately Rs 50 lakh from CCTV camera installations across the city.
Officials stated that the company executing the project has filed nearly 150 complaints at various police stations so far, but no significant recovery had been made until now. Due to the persistent thefts, the authorities concerned were compelled to directly connect around 200 CCTV cameras to the main electricity supply, bypassing the battery backup system. As a result, the cameras failed to operate during power cuts, disrupting round-the-clock surveillance and affecting the city’s overall security monitoring.
