Three mobile phone towers, equipment go missing; city cops begin inquiry

CHENNAI: Three mobile phone towers and equipment worth more than Rs 10 lakh went missing from Kolathur, Villivakkam and Rajamangalam over a period from 2018 to 2022. After directions from the court, Rajamangalam police registered a case and launched a search for the missing towers and equipment.

Police sources said that the towers were installed and maintained by a private firm, GTL Infrastructures Limited. The service engineers from the company had last checked the towers in April 2018. When they went to check them again in December 2022, the towers were missing, according to their complaint.

While two of the towers were in Kolathur – at Thenpazhani Nagar and Jayanthi Nagar – the other tower was in Villivakkam, police said. Police sources said that miscreants often target the accessories in these towers such as copper coils, batteries and similar parts in the mobile phone towers.

Sources said that the complainant company used to maintain the mobile phone towers of a now-defunct telecom company and added that there were instances of property owners themselves dismantling the 15-foot-high towers and selling them for scrap after they did not get any rent from the installation due to the financial troubles that the telecom company got entangled with.

Rajamangalam police are investigating.