The thieves in Bihar are making waves. They are regularly coming up with new and unique ideas for stealing things.

This time they took away a 50-meter-high mobile tower in the state capital after posing as employees of the service provider.

It took three days for them to dismantle the steel tower put up by GTPL Hathway Limited on the land of Arvind Singh in Gardanibagh locality on the outskirts of Patna.

“Four or five well-dressed people and some other people claiming to be from GTPL Hathway Limited approached me and informed me that the agreement for the mobile tower was over, hence they have come to remove it. “They were wearing batches and identity cards of the company. I agreed thinking that it will free the costly space that had become virtually useless for other purposes,” Arvind said.

“The tower was put up around 15 or 16 years by Aircel mobile company and the monthly rent was fixed at just Rs 10,000 at that time. GTPL took the tower when Aircel shut down. However, the land prices, rent and population had shot up. Space is scarce in the state capital,” Arvind added.

The landowner asserted that the entire group was well-behaved and gentlemanly and he did not suspect anything untoward. It had come with a pick-up truck, gas cutters, ladder, ropes and other things and immediately started working to dismantle the tower that had been installed on a base of a dozen concrete pillars.

Arvind alleged that he had not received rent for his land for the past seven years. He regularly visited the company’s office, but the issue could not be resolved. When the security guards deployed there stopped allowing him to enter the office building to plead the issue, he sent court notices.

The company had also removed the security guard deployed to keep a watch on the tower. “We asked them about my rent due with the company, they said they will first take the tower and file a report with the company, which will then send the money to my bank account in which I used to get the rent,” Arvind’s son Tara Kumar Singh said.

However, the tower was high and heavy.

It took the thieves three days to cut the steel beams and angles that made it.

They kept shipping the parts away during this period. Their operation was complete on Friday.

Meanwhile, the company officials went out on Saturday to inspect the towers that were not working and saw the entire tower missing. They rushed to the Gardanibagh police station and registered an FIR.

“We have registered a case and have started our investigations. The company officials who have registered the FIR have valued it at Rs 19 lakh,” a police official told this newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier this month, thieves stole locomotive engine parts worth Rs 20 crore from a railway scrap yard in Muzaffarpur district. The main accused in the case is a scrap dealer and he surrendered in court.

Thieves cut and stole parts of a dilapidated steel bridge in Rohtas district of Bihar earlier this year after posing as water resources department officials.