Robbers steal mobile tower in Patna posing themselves as service provider staff

Unknown persons, who posed themselves as employees of the service provider, took away a mobile tower in Patna's Sabzibagh locality. The incident came to light during the inspection of the mobile towers. An FIR has been registered based on the statement of the company's area manager Mohammad Shahnawaz Anwar against unknown persons.

Patna: Robbers made away with a mobile tower in Patna's Sabzibagh locality posing as employees of the service provider, an official said. The mobile tower was installed in a house in 2006 by the service provider company Aircel and sold to GTL company. The incident came to light during the inspection of the mobile towers. An FIR has been registered on the statement of the company's area manager Mohammad Shahnawaz Anwar against unknown persons. As per the complaint, the company had done its last inspection on August 31, 2022. At that time, the mobile tower was there. The company has done a second inspection recently and then the tower was found to be missing.

"When the company officials enquired about the incident, the house owner informed them that some persons, who claimed to be employees of GTL company, came here four months ago and removed the tower. They have given the excuse that the tower was having a massive technical glitch and that a new tower will be installed soon. They put the equipment on the truck and taken it away," said police belonging to Pirbahore police station.

The local police are investigating the matter, but as the mobile tower was stolen four months ago, the CCTV footage is not available to identify the accused. GTL provides services to other cellular service provider companies. They have the equipment installed in the tower. "The GTL company has not paid rent to the house owner for the past few months. The company officials also failed to inspect the towers and the equipment installed in them," said Sabih-Ul-Haq, the SHO of Pirbahore police station.

"As the GTL company was not paying the rent, the house owner asked them to remove the tower. Initially, the GTL company removed part of the equipment. After that, another team came and removed all the equipment," he said. Now, the GTL company is saying that its employees have not removed the equipment the second time," the SHO further said. The cost of stolen equipment is Rs 8,32,000.