Ghaziabad: Four members of a gang accused of stealing around 50,550kg of iron rods from a construction site in Wave City were arrested, a police officer said. The gang’s mastermind, scrap tycoon Ravi Kana’s cousin, remains absconding.According to police, the accused were identified as Aaftab (36) alias Afzal, a resident of Masuri, Ghaziabad; Shahrukh (23), a resident of Bulandshahr; and Naeem (24) and Wasid (25), both residents of Hapur.On Feb 8, a case was registered at the Wave City police station regarding the theft of iron rods at the construction site of the Aditya Kutumbakam project. The complaint stated that company employees and their associates manipulated the computerised weighbridge by installing electronic chips and provided less material than what was paid for.A day later, Shravan, an employee of Aditya World City, was arrested for his involvement in the iron rod theft case. On Feb 10, another accused, Babar Malik, a resident of Kaila Bhatta, police station Kotwali, was arrested with three truck trailers (18-wheelers) containing some quantity of the 7,800 kilograms of stolen iron rods, fake bills, electronic chips with a remote, and an Aura car. He was subsequently sent to jail.Aaftab was arrested from Meerut Mod on Feb 16 for his involvement in the same case after an informer tipped off the police about his location. From his possession, two mobile phones, two electronic chips, 10 remotes for operating the chips, soldering wire, a testing machine, two fake bills for stolen iron rods, and other equipment were recovered. Based on information provided by Aaftab, three truck trailers with fake number plates containing 44,550 kg of stolen iron rods were seized near the Hamdard Ground parking in Lohiya Nagar. The three other co-accused, who were driving the seized trucks, were arrested too.Additional commissioner of police Keshav Chaudhary said,”During interrogation, Aaftab said with the illegal money obtained from the iron rod theft, he has purchased several plots of land, houses, four-wheelers and several truck trailers. He worked in partnership with Raju alias Rajkumar Adhana in iron rod theft. Adhana is the maternal cousin of Ravi Kana. A police team has been formed to nab Adhana and other co-accused in the case,” Chaudhary said. “The accused have been booked by Wave City police station under sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 336(3) (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 345(3) (punishment for using a false property mark), and 317(2) (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the BNS.
