The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Gang stealing copper wire busted

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Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Gang stealing copper wire busted

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: Guntur Police nabbed a gang of robbers, who specialized in breaking open electrical transformers and doing away with copper wire and cooling oil from them along with aluminium wire connecting the transformers for past three years.

The police could nab four of the five-member gang and were searching for the 27-year-old Srungavarapu Batti of Santamagaluru village in Prakasam district. The four arrested were involved in 34 cases in the past eight months and they were produced in the court on Tuesday. While material recovered was 225 kg. of copper wire and 150 kg of aluminium wire, cases in a couple of thefts were yet to be recorded, SP Mahesh Chandra Laddha told mediapersons. The value of the recovered property was put at Rs.1.6 lakh. The accused – Buduri Venkateswarlu, 25, Potluri Vemulaiah, 22, Srungavarapu Vikram, 29, and Illa Ramakrishna, 22 – were arrested on charge of committing offences in Narsaraopet, Atchempet, Medermetla, Ballikurava, Addanki, Martur, Korisapadu, J. Pangaluru, Santhamaguluru, Inavolu and Kollipara in Guntur and Prakasam districts. There were 19 cases of wire thefts and 15 cases of transformer theft reported, while the accused said they had indulged in several similar offences for the past three years and sold the material in Narsaraopet. The Guntur police also nabbed two of the four-member gang indulging in house robberies in Prakasam and Guntur districts. The arrested were identified as Mendaguthi Chinna Venkateswarlu, 40, and Peram Polaiah, 40, both belonging to Tripuranthakam in Prakasam district. Congratulating the police personnel from Vinukonda and Narsaraopet, the SP said two others of the gang, Matta Nageswara Rao, 35, and Mata Nageswara Rao, 42, were yet to be nabbed.

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Andhra Pradesh