Beed: Four held for theft of cables from wind energy firm's campus

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Police have arrested four individuals who are linked with the theft of cables of Rs 12.75 lakh from the campus of a wind energy firm at Massajog village in Maharashtra's Beed district, officials said on Tuesday.

Given several criminal cases registered against the accused in the past, the police will send a proposal to higher authorities to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against them, Beed Superintendent of Police Navneet Kanwat informed, reported PTI.

According to PTI, the theft case was registered on April 8 in a complaint lodged by a company watchman.

The incident occurred around midnight on April 7 when the watchman and his colleague were on duty.

Nearly 14 men wearing caps and scarves broke into the WTG 48 section on the premises of the company. Some of them were speaking in Hindi, the complainant stated.

The accused tied the hands and legs of the watchmen and stole three types of cables of Rs 12.75 lakh before fleeing, he stated.

The watchmen freed themselves later and informed senior officials of the company.

On Monday, the local crime branch arrested four people, identified as Baban Shinde (from Beed), Dhanaji Kale, Mohan Kale and Lalasaheb Pawar (Dharashiv), in connection with the theft, a police release said.

"We have arrested four persons in this case and the material (related to the offence) has also been recovered," Kanwat said.

"Ten of the accused in the case already have 27 cases registered against them for offences like theft, dacoity, robbery and rioting. We are going to propose to book them under the MCOCA and expose the entire chain (of the organised crime)," Kanwat stated.

Beed sarpanch murder case: ‘Got offer to conduct encounter of Walmik Karad'

A suspended police sub-inspector from Beed on Monday claimed some people had offered him money to carry out an "encounter" of Walmik Karad, accused in sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case. Ranjeet Kasle, the suspended cop, also said he had mentioned the names of the people who made the offer in a local police station diary.

A senior police officer from Beed, however, dismissed Kasle's claims as baseless and said he should submit proof of his statements. Kasle was suspended earlier when he was a sub-inspector in the local cyber crime department. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted and tortured to death on December 9 last year allegedly for attempting to stop an extortion bid targeting an energy company.

Karad is among the eight people arrested so far and booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The state Crime Investigation Department (CID) last month filed a more than 1200-page charge sheet at a court in Beed in Deshmukh's murder and two related cases.

(With inputs from PTI)