Sambalpur, April 6: Police today busted a gang, which was involved in the theft of batteries from mobile service provider towers, and arrested 10 persons in this connection.

The police have also seized more than 900 batteries and two four-wheelers from the accused's possession.

The accused have been identified as Kusa Swain, 25, Kalia Swain, 26, Anil Naik, 20, Rohit alias Rudhei Naik, 23, Raju Sahu alias Rajendra, 19, Shyam Sundar Das, 28, Kalindi Majhi, 26, Basanta Kumar Sahu alias Prasanna, 35, Abhaya Behera, 55, and Manas alias Bidusa Rout, 32.

While Abhaya and Bidusa were receivers of the stolen batteries, the other accused used to steal them from the mobile service provider towers.

"They would divide themselves into two groups and approach the towers located at the isolated places. They used to steal the batteries after intimidating the security guards there," said police superintendent Akhilesvar Singh.

"The market price of the seized batteries will be around Rs 60 lakh. They were stealing batteries from towers located in the rural areas and isolated places. They had stolen batteries from mobile towers in Keonjhar, Bargarh, Balangir, Sonepur, Jhrsuguda, Boudh, Angul, Cuttack, Sundargarh, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur districts," said the police.

The police said: "Around 24 to 48 batteries are installed in each mobile service provider tower. The accused persons used to take around 45 minutes to remove the batteries from a tower."

Thirty cases, including nine in Sambalpur district, were registered against the accused in several police stations of the districts, from where they had stolen the batteries. Such thefts came to the notice of Sambalpur police in November last year, when the accused had stolen batteries from a mobile tower at Naktideul of the district. They had been active in this region since the past three months.

"The police formed special squad to nab the accused. They were produced in court today," said a police official.