Alipurduar, Jan. 25: Twelve people, including 11 minors, involved in stealing and selling BSNL cables were arrested from the Rydak II bridge on NH31C near the Assam border last night.
Police said Gopal Roy (28), the gang leader, told them during interrogation that rival companies of BSNL paid them large amounts of money to steal the cables to tarnish the power major’s reputation.
BSNL officials had lodged a complaint with the Barobisha police outpost about regular cable thefts in the area over the last few months.
Last night, a source informed the Kumargram police that the gang would come to steal the cables from the Rydak II bridge.
The police reached the spot around 2.30am and caught the criminals red-handed while they were unearthing and cutting the cables at the bridge.
The police later seized a huge quantity of cables after raiding Roy’s house in Pashchim Chakchaka.
Roy had been running this racket for the last two years. He used to sell the stolen cables in Assam.
The minors are all aged between 14 and 17 years. Roy deliberately recruited them because he had to pay them less.
The inspector-in-charge of the Kumargram police station, Ashim Ghosh, said: “We have got a lot of information about the racket from Gopal. On the basis of this, follow-up raids will be conducted soon.”
The gang-members were forwarded to the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipurduar today. Samir Majumder, the assistant public prosecutor, said the court had rejected their bail petitions and sent the minors to a juvenile home in Cooch Behar.
Roy was sent to the Alipurduar jail.
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