MUAR: Seven people, including two women, were arrested by the police for stealing telecommunication cables worth about RM50,000.
Muar OCPD Asst Comm Raiz Mukhliz Azman Aziz said the suspects, aged 23 to 47, were arrested at a workshop here on Thursday (Sept 5).
“They were in the middle of cutting some cables at the workshop when police arrived at the scene to arrest them.
“The group has been stealing Telekom Malaysia’s underground cables by cutting and yanking them out via manholes using a four-wheel drive vehicle,” he said in a statement on Sunday (Sept 8).
ACP Raiz said the main suspect possessed 34 previous crime records including for cable theft and drug offences while another suspect also had prior cable theft records.
He added that police seized several tools like cable cutters along with the arrest as well as signboards, traffic cones and ropes, believed to be used by the suspects to steal cables.
The case is being investigated under Section 379 of the Penal Code (for theft), which carries a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both upon conviction.
The suspects would also be probed under Section 431A of the Penal Code for committing mischief by cutting any electric telegraph cable, wire, line, post, instrument or apparatus for signalling.
