Electric Charging Station Theft: Chandigarh Police Arrest 5 Under The Age Of 11, Reason For Theft Surprises

Chandigarh police successfully intercepted two scrap dealers; five juveniles all aged between 8 and 11 all facing severe charges of counselling and schoolwork.

Police state the young children managed to secure equipment worth 1 crore of soon-to-be-launched electric vehicle charging stations earlier this month. The real crime is with the scrap dealer who paid the children Rs.6000 for all the material.

A determined Chandigarh Police was the one to crack the case by arresting the two scrap dealers, who had been booked for receiving stolen property under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code.

The recovered equipment consisted of seven motherboards, miniature circuit breakers, electric meters, iron covers, and chargers. Unfortunately, these items have been rendered useless.

The five boys were caught in the act on CCTV cameras dashing with charging guns and its equipment. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) strongly recommended counselling for the boys upon the police saying that the boys were too young to be put in custody.

The police counselled the boys and spoke to their families, they recommended the Board to enroll them in a school considering they have never received education and instead loiter around all day says DSP Charanjit Singh Virk.

The case has been in motion since the 18th of March after a complaint of TC Nautiyal, director, environment, UT reporting the theft of the equipment from the EV stations installed at Sector 42 Lake and Palm Garden.

Human intelligence and technology were two major contributing factors that helped the police catch the juveniles, who later told them that they had sold the stolen items to scrap dealers who used to buy scrap in Palsora, named Ganga Ram, who lives in the Jhampur Colony, in Mohali; and Mukesh Kumar, who lives in sector 41.

After arresting and interrogating both Ganga and Mukesh, the police carried out interrogation which led to the scrap dealer’s confession to their involvement in the crimes committed.

The police stated that there was a fire that took place at the furniture market in Sector 52, which is where the juveniles live with their parent in the Adarsh Colony.

After the fire, the children were seen picking up burnt pieces of metal that they sold to scrap dealers for Rs 150 to Rs 200, which was used to eat street food. This gave them the drive to do it again and steal more metal as stated by the DSP officer Charanjit Singh Virk.