Police arrested two former electricity department employees, Jatinderpal Singh and Ghaniya Mishra, for stealing a street light battery from Gharuan village on Sunday. Both are residents of Patiala and were booked under Section 305 (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Village head Rakesh Kumar said the accused, who had previously worked with the electricity department, visited the village often to repair street lights. On Sunday afternoon, they came on a motorcycle claiming to fix a faulty street light but instead removed the battery and fled with it.
In a separate incident, police arrested a mobile phone snatcher within hours of the crime. The complainant, Jasleen Kaur, reported that around 11 am while heading to Chandigarh University from Gate Number 8, a bike-borne man snatched her phone and escaped.
Police traced and arrested the accused, identified as Niraj Kumar of Raipur, Mohali. He was booked under Section 304 (snatching) of the BNS.
Investigations are ongoing in both cases to check if the accused were involved in similar crimes.
