Bengaluru: Metro construction material worth Rs 8 lakh stolen

Unknown miscreants took away materials stored for the construction of Namma Metro such as a gunmetal hydrant, branch pipe, hose reel, transformer, VFD breaker, and other items worth Rs 8 lakh.

In one of the complaints filed by Rajesh K B, an employee of the firm Constorium of ETA and Polycab, which has taken the tender to carry out metro work from the BMRCL, said they had stored materials in front of the Golden Palm Canteen on Cubbon Road, including a gunmetal single hydrant valve, gunmetal branch pipe with a nozzle, two-way bridge valve, and hose reel nozzle, totalling Rs 4.3 lakh.

On the midnight of June 26, the security guard at the storage area had called Rajesh to inform that a five-member gang converged on the place to steal the materials but escaped when he raised an alarm. While checking the stock, Rajesh learnt about the stolen goods and approached the Commercial Street police station to lodge a complaint on July 2. But the place falls under the Cubbon Park police station and the complaint was filed on July 6.

Second case of theft

In another case, Ramesh Muddappa, an employee of L&T, stated that some unknown miscreants stole materials worth Rs 4.23 lakh. The materials were stored in the BBMP playground on Shivaji Road near BRV junction.

The company, which has taken the tender work, stored the materials in the playground. They checked the stock on June 25 and again on June 29 when they realised that the materials were missing.

An investigating official said two separate theft cases have been filed and efforts are on to capture the criminals involved. If the materials had been stolen, the criminals would have taken them away on a goods carrying vehicle, the official said.