Kasaragod: Days after the Kerala Police arrested 11 members of a gang from Uttar Pradesh accused of stealing BSNL cables in Kannur and Thrissur, KSEB in Kasaragod has reported that its insulated cables and aluminium conductors were stolen from two sections 60 km apart within 48 hours. Police have yet to establish whether the two thefts in Kasaragod district are connected or identify those behind them.

In the early hours of Thursday, September 24, six masked men stole two drums containing 1,000 metres of insulated aluminium cable worth around ₹4 lakh from Gunaje in Enmakaje panchayat, under the Perla KSEB Electrical Section. The theft was captured on CCTV, with the men seen working together to move the heavy cable drums and load them onto a pickup vehicle.

The latest theft came two days after a similar incident at Balanthode in Panathady panchayat, around 60 km from Perla. On September 22, masked men stole about 900 kg of old aluminium cables kept at the Balanthode KSEB section office after it had been removed during line-replacement work. The material had only scrap value, said a KSEB official.

The two incidents have several similarities. Both occurred around 2.30 am and involved masked men and a pickup vehicle. KSEB officials also said the vehicle seen in the Balanthode footage appeared similar to the one captured on camera at Perla. However, police have not yet established that the two incidents were carried out by the same gang.

Perla Assistant Engineer Binu K V said he had submitted a complaint to Badiadka police station and officers are expected to visit the theft site at Gunaje and register an FIR on Friday.

According to the complaint, the theft came to light after a resident alerted the KSEB office by phone on Thursday morning.

An inspection subsequently confirmed that the thieves stole two drums of low-tension aerial bunched (LT AB) cable meant for the Dyuthi power grid upgrade project.

The CCTV footage shows six men with their faces covered arriving near the Gunaje transformer around 2.30 am. After hovering around and working for an hour, they managed to roll one of the heavy drums into the pickup using two poles as a makeshift ramp. "The footage shows the vehicle leaving with the first drum and returning about half an hour later to collect the second," Binu told Onmanorama. "We believe they travelled around 5km and shifted the drum to another vehicle before returning," he said.

The pickup seen in the CCTV footage was registered in Kasaragod. "But we could see only KL 14 AE. The number was unclear in the footage," he said.

The two drums were brought to Gunaje about two months ago to replace existing lines. Each drum contained 500 metres of insulated aluminium cable worth ₹2 lakh, Binu said.

At Balanthode, meanwhile, the stolen material was old aluminium conductor recovered after an earlier line-replacement work. The material had been stored on the ground floor of the KSEB section office, while the office itself was on the first floor. Night-duty staff heard a noise around 2.30 am on September 22, but by the time they looked out, the men had fled after loading about 900 kg of conductor onto a pickup.

There was no CCTV camera at the Balanthode section office, but footage from cameras along the road traced the pickup for about 35 km up to Bovikanam near Cherkala. The Rajapuram police have registered a case in connection with that theft.

The incidents come shortly after police in Thrissur, Ernakulam and Kannur arrested 11 alleged members of a western Uttar Pradesh-based interstate gang accused of stealing copper cables. Police said the Meerut gang travelled to Kerala by air while their two-wheelers were transported separately by train. Investigators are examining whether other groups are involved in similar utility-material thefts in the state.