Police bust steel theft racket, arrest 4 people

Seize steel sheets worth Rs 30 lakh from 3 trucks; drivers, scrap agents held; involvement of more people suspected

Police bust steel theft racket, arrest 4 people

Seize steel sheets worth Rs 30 lakhu00a0from 3 trucks; drivers, scrap agents held; involvement of more people suspected

Acting on a tip-off, the local Crime Branch arrested four persons yesterday for stealing scrap from various steel units and then selling it. Stolen steel sheets worth Rs 30 lakh were seized by the police from three trucks.
How they did it The drivers working for various steel units would remove the spare parts such as extra tyres from their trucks and would load unaccounted steel sheets into the vehicle. This unaccounted material was then unloaded and sold to scrap agents, near Warsoli Toll Post on Expressway, and then the spare parts were again loaded into the vehicle to match the original weight.

It was a steal: The steel sheets seized by the police. Pic/Vishal Suresh

The police believe that this was being done in at least 30 to 40 trucks carrying steel sheets. From each truck about 250 to 300 kg of steel was stolen and sold to scrap agents. Police Inspector Nitin Gokave said that this theft remained unnoticed for many months. "The drivers took every precaution to attach the spare parts when the truck's weight was taken at the unit where they were supposed to deliver the material," he said.u00a0

The arrested persons have been identified as Pramod Dnyanoba Surwase of Kalamboli, Gangaram Mehilal Gohol of Gorakhpur, Mohammed Ekbal Ahmed Sheikh of Azamgarh, Mohammed Bettulla Shamsuddin Sarkar of Khajuriya in West Bengal. Surwase and Gohol worked as drivers at transport companies, while the other two were scrap agents, Gokave said.

5 tonnes daily
The police have also recovered diary notings of the business transaction between the drivers and agents. It showed that almost five tonnes of scrap material was being sold in this manner everyday. The police believe more drivers could be involved in the theft.