Mi phone consignment worth ₹15 crore looted off the Highway

The consignment that included 15 cartons of 960 mobile phones each and a few more mobile phones were shifted to another vehicle.

A container carrying mobile phones was looted of its consignment and the drivers attacked, in Melumalai, Shoolagiri, in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Mi mobile phones suspected to have been worth ₹15 crore was looted by a gang suspected to have carried out similar such attacks in many districts in Andhra Pradesh.

The consignment that originated from Sriperampudur Industrial Estate was crossing Shoolagiri in Hosur, when the truck was reportedly stopped on the Highway at about 2 a.m. The drivers Arun (26) and Kumar (29) were attacked by a gang that tied them up. The consignment that included 15 cartons of 960 mobile phones each and a few more mobile phones were shifted to another vehicle. The gang had fled the spot with the consignment. The drivers Arun and Kumar later found help from the Highway patrol, who alerted the district police.

A total of 14,500 mobile phones worth around ₹15 crore is suspected to have been looted, though the police were still awaiting a formal complaint from the company as of Wednesday evening. The container vehicle that belonged to DHL courier was retrieved from the spot.

Speaking to The Hindu, Superintendent of Police Bandi Gangadhar said, the truck was stopped by the gang that is believed to have followed the consignment from the point of origin. “The same modus operandi was followed in Nellore, Chittor, Guntur, Warangal districts of Andhra Pradesh, where a gang would follow the vehicle and intercept it in a desolate spot. We are yet to receive a complaint from the company and we have the accounts of the drivers. The courier company’s vehicle is however intact,” Mr. Gangadhar said.

Earlier, Mr.Gangadhar visited the spot. The DIG Pradip Kumar reviewed the site as well. Truck jacking incidents have occurred in the same stretch of the Highway in Melumalai in Shoolagiri earlier. In 2015, a consignment carrying aluminum worth several crore was stolen and the driver was brutally murdered sparking an inter-State strike by truckers demanding protection.

Following the incident, truckers were issued an advisory to not to park in desolate places and only in designated lay-by along the Highway.

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