Bathinda, March 17

Some miscreants stole underground cables of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), amounting to worth Rs 15 lakh, from near Government Rajindra College on the intervening night of March 14 and 15 in the city.The thieves stole the expensive seven 400-meter-long copper wires from the 6 feet deep manhole opposite Rajindra College and Liberty chowk. The police said the theft was carried out with planning as the thieves had hired an excavator of Baljinder Singh 10 days ago. They had told him that they had got the contractor for changing wires of BSNL. At around 10.30 pm on Saturday night,   the accused, along with Baljinder Singh and the excavator, reached  the spot and started cutting the wire. They loaded the wires in a tractor brought by the accused. They also paid Rs 1,000 to Baljinder and told him that they would continue the work the next morning.On Sunday, Baljinder Singh reached the spot but did not find anyone. So, on Monday, he went to the BSNL office to get the payment.  SDO Ashwani Kumar said on Sunday morning, they were flooded with complaints from the residents that the landline and broadband connections were not working after which they came to know that the wires were stolen by some miscreants.Civil Lines police station official Jagsir Singh  said they had received a complainant from the BSNL office regarding the incident yesterday evening following which they registered a case under Sections 379 and 120 B of the IPC. The incident has affected the BSNL services in various areas of the city, including Civil Lines, Mansa Road, Model Town Phase-1, Dabwali Road and the grain market. Meanwhile, new wires are being installed to commence the services.. Civil Line police station SHO Karamjit Singh said usually the laying of cables was done in the night due to which the thieves succeeded in committed the crime under the garb of routine work.