Noida:Police on Sunday arrested five people for allegedly stealing iron rebars from more than 16 construction sites across the city over the past month. The gang is suspected to have stolen over 60 quintals of rebars, said police.
One of the suspects,a man aged around 35,with 15 previous cases registered against him across Delhi-NCR, was injured in a brief exchange of fire with police, police said.
The case came to light on October 10, when a resident of Sector 62, filed a complaint at the Sector 58 police station about unidentified suspects having stolen around six quintals of iron rebars from outside his under-construction house, police said.
“CCTV footage showed two suspects conducting a recce, while two others stole the rebars using a modified scooter fitted with a loading bay,” Amit Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Sector 58 police station, said.
Probe revealed that the suspects had been active in Noida for about a month, stealing rebars from 16 sites.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team on Saturday spotted two of them riding a motorcycle in the area. “When the police team tried to stop them, one of the suspects opened fire. In retaliatory fire, the 35-year-old suspect sustained a bullet injury to his leg. Another suspect, in his 20s, was arrested after a search of the area,” said Abhay Kumar Mishra, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP), Noida.
Based on information provided by the two suspects, police arrested two more men, aged 27 and 20, from Delhi’s Kalyanpuri. The fifth suspect, a 55-year-old scrap dealer from Ghaziabad, was arrested on Sunday.
During interrogation, the suspects revealed that they stole iron rebars from construction sites and sold them with the help of the scrap dealer. “They would first dump the stolen material at isolated places before transporting them to the dealer’s premises in Ghaziabad,” the SHO added.
A case of attempt to murder, theft under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections and violations of the Arms Act was registered against them at the Sector 58 police station.
