Chamoli, July 5 (IANS) Four people, all residents of Uttar Pradesh, have been arrested by the Chamoli Police on charges of stealing power line construction materials worth Rs 8 lakh from Karnaprayag, officials said on Sunday.

All the stolen material was recovered within 24 hours, police officials said.

“Under the direction of the Chamoli Superintendent of Police (SP), the district police once again demonstrated swift and effective action by successfully solving the case of stolen power line construction materials worth approximately Rs 8 lakh. They recovered the entire consignment and arrested the accused involved,” officials said in a statement.

The accused have been identified as Mohd. Danish (23) and Chand Mohammad (20), both residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad; Farman (30), a resident of UP’s Sambhal and Sueb (23), a resident of UP’s Bulandshahr.

On July 4, Nakul Kumar, a site engineer with T.S. Power Corporation Limited, reported to the Karnaprayag Police Station that approximately 1,100 meters of PVC (ABC) cable, 3-4 quintals of aluminium wire, and hardware materials had been stolen by unknown thieves.

These materials were stored at sites in the Nauti, Pudiyani, and Jakh villages of the Karnaprayag area for a power line replacement project under the RDSS scheme.

Given the seriousness of the incident, and acting on the instructions of Chamoli SP Surjit Singh Panwar, a case was immediately registered. A police team was formed under the supervision of Karnaprayag Circle Officer (CO) Trivendra Singh Rana and the direction of Station House Officer (SHO) Vinod Thapliyal.

The team conducted an intensive investigation around the crime scene and meticulously analysed footage from CCTV cameras installed on nearby routes. During the investigation, the movement of a suspicious ‘Chhota Hathi’ (mini-loader) vehicle during the night came to light.

Acting swiftly, the police team intercepted the suspicious vehicle at the Gauchar police outpost and conducted a search.

The entire stolen consignment was recovered, and the accused involved in the incident were arrested on the spot.

–IANS

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