Police bust racket stealing transformers in Koshi; 12 arrested

ITAHARI: Police have busted a racket involved in the theft of electrical transformers in three districts of Koshi Province—Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa.

The group reportedly stole 22 transformers from these districts since mid-January. Police have involved seven members of the racket and five middlemen who were buying copper wires from them.

According to the Koshi Provincial Police Office, Biratnagar, the racket inflicted a loss of around Rs 20 million on the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

DIG Ishwar Karki said 12 transformers were stolen from Sunsari, eight from Jhapa and two from Jhapa. “The racket was involved in stealing transformers, removing electric copper wires from them and selling the wires through middlemen,” Karki said.

The main suspects include Arjun Kumar Majhi (42) from Gramthan-4, Iraz Dhami (31) from Gramthan-5, Arjun Chaudhary (26) from Belbari-4, and Ranjit Tamang (27) from Belbari-3, Morang; as well as Anuj Biswas (35) from Duhabi-3, Prayag Kumar Chaudhary (39) from Duhabi-2, Sunsari; and Indian national Alam Miya (34), currently residing in Duhabi-4, Sunsari.

Likewise, Lakshya Pradhan (53) of Biratnagar-3, Krishna Gopal Tamrakar (62) of Biratnagar-6, Morang; Yogesh Agrawal (32) of Duhabi-3, Kapil Bhatta (31) of Duhabi-2 and Sitaram Rai (39) of Itahari-4 of Sunsari.

DIG Karki said the middlemen involved in the sale of stolen copper were also part of the racket.

Police also seized 22 dial wrenches, three socket wrenches, three pliers, three screwdrivers, one chisel, one chain, one cutter, and three hacksaw blades, as well as five motorcycles from the racket.

The racket was busted after police arrested Arjun Kumar Majhi red-handed while he was trying to steal a transformer at Itabhatta in Rangeli Municipality-9 of Morang in the last week of July.

Following this, the provincial police office, in coordination with district police offices in Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa, had formed a special investigation team which made the arrests.