Jamshedpur police were able to finally make a breakthrough in the serial theft of solar lamp batteries with the arrests of two persons at Parsudih in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The arrested youths are Raj Kumar and Ravi Gope, both in their early 20s and members of a five-member gang. Three stolen solar lamp batteries have been recovered as well.

They were sent to Ghaghidih Central Jail after being produced at the chief judicial magistrate's court.

The other three members, including the kingpin, are still at large.

Police, who have launched a manhunt for the trio, hope to bring down the crime rate in the steel city to some extent with these arrests as the stolen solar lights, which plunged the streets into darkness, had in turn triggered a chain of thefts and burglaries in localities like Gadra, Shankarpur and Sarjamda.

Officer-in-charge (OC) of Parsudih police station Bipin Kumar said that the arrests were made by a patrol team.

"The patrol party was passing through the densely populated locality of Gadra around 1am when they saw a youth walking suspiciously from one lane to another. At the sight of the police jeep, he started walking faster, further fuelling suspicion. Soon, some policemen got down from the jeep and chased the youth, nabbing him a little distance away," Kumar added.

During interrogation, the youth gave his name as Raj Kumar and led police to a house at Shankarpur in Parsudih from where three stolen batteries were recovered.

Kumar also revealed that there were four more members in his gang that was behind the solar light thefts in Jamshedpur.

"On the basis of information gleaned from the youth, we went to Gope's house, which is also in Gadra, and nabbed him," the officer-in-charge said.

According to OC Kumar, each of the stolen batteries cost Rs 10,000, but the thieves used to sell them for Rs 2,500 a piece at an electric shop in Sakchi. The "profit" thus earned was equally divided among the five.

The solar lamps, bought from MP LAD funds, were installed in the steel city in 2012-13, bringing much cheer to the local residents.

But after a year, the batteries started disappearing one after the other.

"Since January 1 this year, 13 solar lamp batteries were stolen from strategically important roads, causing the streets to go dark at night. Criminals took advantage of the dark roads to commit thefts and burglaries," said an officer at Parsudih police station.