NELLORE: The Chittoor Taluk Police arrested three people for stealing transformers and recovered 250 kg of copper wire worth Rs 10 lakh and a motorcycle from them near NTR reservoir at Kalavakunta village in the district late on Friday evening.
The accused have been identified as Nagaraj Selvan alias Kabali, 22, Subhramanyam Kalaikumar, 19 and Jaikumar Satheesh, 20, of Ponnai village in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu.
Chittoor SP Y. Rishanth Reddy formed a team headed by Chittoor DSP N. Sudhakar Reddy to keep a tab on power transformer thefts in various parts of the district.
Based on a tip-off received by Chittoor rural east circle Inspector K. Maddaiah Achari over the movement of transformer thieves near NTR reservoir, the police team rushed to the spot and apprehended three members of the gang, all natives of Tamil Nadu.
The gang's modus operandi was to identify transformers fixed on agricultural farms during the day and remove the copper wire during the night after pushing down the transformer from the platform.
After interrogating the accused, the police found copper wire concealed in the bushes near the NTR reservoir. They appreciated the police team, especially CI K. Maddaiah Achary, Chittoor Talk station SI V. Ramakrishna and Penumuru SI M. Anilkumar, for nabbing the gang and recovering the copper wire.
