Published Jan 23, 2023 | 1:51 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 23, 2023 | 1:51 PM
Radio remote units were stolen by thieves from mobile towers in Bengaluru's Kengeri leading to thousands losing connectivity. Representative image of a mobile phone tower in Karnataka (Wikimedia Commons/adityamadhav83)
At least 7,000 phone and internet connections have been disrupted in Kengeri Satellite Town, Nagarbhavi Circle, and Nagadevanahalli areas in west Bengaluru as thieves made away with more than 10 radio remote units (RRUs) from around six mobile towers in and around the area in mid-January.
Based on a complaint of theft of nearly 10 radio remote units by Yogesh K, a supervisor with a security firm in Koramangala that has been given the responsibility of guarding hundreds of mobile towers in the city, the Kengeri police registered an FIR and conducted a probe.
And last week the cops arrested Deepak Rao Pawar (22) and Jaan Pintu (20), both residents of Challaghatta in Kumbalgodu, and recovered 14 radio remote units worth ₹10.5 lakh from them.
The cops are now on the lookout for two more persons including the main accused, Bharath, believed to be the brains behind the theft.
Recovered Radio Remote Units by the city police
Yogesh, the complainant who also supervises his firm’s patrolling security teams, told South First that all the accused have worked as technicians who used to go to houses and install connections of internet broadband and digital television networks.
“The accused have learnt about the radio remote units too — including how to dismantle them within five minutes, before the alarm goes off,” he said.
“Along with the alarm, even messages of link shutdowns would go to field technicians, field support engineers, and area operating managers. They would then activate the security patrol teams and field technicians would reach the spot,” Yogesh noted. But before the field technicians or patrolling teams reach the spot, the accused would have long made away with the radio remote units.
“Each radio remote unit costs ₹75,000, and the accused sell it to the scrap dealers for somewhere between ₹5,000 and ₹8,000. The scrap dealers would melt the aluminium and other metals inside the RRUs and sell the raw metals,” Yogesh added.
On 13 January, Yogesh was informed by field technicians that the links were down in Kengeri Satellite Town and they needed to go and check it.
When they went to the fourth-floor terrace of the Vodafone office in the Kengeri Satellite Town Main Road where the mobile tower stood, they saw that the radio remote units of the tower had gone missing. “As the accused have experience working with mobile towers, they would act as technicians and no one would suspect them while they were stealing,” Yogesh explained.
Each radio remote unit caters to around 500 customers both for their phone and internet connection services.
The phone and internet service providers would start getting complaint calls from customers in a particular area in bulk after the link went down.
Investigating officer WPSI Ambika and police inspector HV Sanjeev Gowda analysed the CCTV footage in and around the Vodafone office in the Kengeri Satellite Town Main road at the time of the link shutdown and identified the culprits.
“We have taken up the case seriously and made two arrests. We are on the lookout for the others. We have definite clues and will secure them,” Laxman B Nimbargi, deputy commissioner of police (West Division), told South First.
