Gang involved in tubewell parts thefts busted, 3 arrested
With the arrest of three persons, the Panipat police have busted an inter-district gang allegedly involved in stealing wires, motors and other equipment from agricultural tubewells and solved 132 such theft cases across three districts.
The accused were operating the gang for the past three years and were caught by the police for the first time.
The arrested persons have been identified as Goon Sagar, a resident of Jamalpur, Darbhanga in Bihar, and currently residing on rent in Aath Marla area in Panipat; Gulbahar, a native of Ladwa, Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, and presently living in Shastri Colony, Panipat; and Sahil, a resident of Sisauli, Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, and currently living in Manmohan Nagar, Babail Road, Panipat.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Panipat Superintendent of Police Lokendra Singh said that the arrests were made on Monday following a tip-off received by inspector Vijay, in-charge of CIA-III. The police team apprehended the trio from the Kala Amb Chowk area where they were reportedly waiting to sell copper wire extracted from a stolen cable.
During preliminary interrogation, the accused confessed to their involvement in 72 thefts across various police station areas of Panipat, including 39 cases under Israna police station, 22 under Samalkha, six under Matlauda, three under Sadar and two under Sunauli police station.
Additionally, they admitted to committing over 60 similar thefts in the districts of Karnal and Kurukshetra.
The case of cable theft from a tubewell in Dahar village in February for which a complaint was registered by Ramkaran at Israna police station is also among the solved cases.
The accused conducted recce of the fields during the day and returned at night to carry out the thefts. During the operation, two or three members acted as lookouts to monitor any movement and alert others in case of danger. The investigation has revealed that the gang had been active in committing thefts since 2022.
The accused are reported to be drug addicts, and to finance their addiction, they resorted to stealing valuable equipment from agricultural fields.
