LUCKNOW: In a rare gesture of appreciation, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) gave away cash rewards of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 to the three teams of the hydel wing of Uttar Pradesh police (UPP) for their path breaking efforts to curb power and property theft and recovery of stolen property of the corporation worth crores of rupees. The teams were awarded at a function held at Jawahar Bhawan on Saturday evening.

This was one of its kind reward given away by the UPPCL to the police unit where the reward money was several times more than what the state police sanctions for its personnel for a select few breakthroughs like gunning down of state level gangsters or brigands.

The Rs 1 lakh reward was bagged by the Moradabad unit of the UPP's hydel wing which busted a gang of burglars indulging in theft of high-tension copper cables. The gang was booked under the National Security Act (NSA) and Gangster's Act apart from the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A reward of Rs 50,000 was handed over to the police team from Rampur which also busted a gang of wire thieves and recovered some vehicles.

The third reward, that of Rs 25,000, was bagged by the team from Jyotiba Phule Nagar which arrested 8 members of a gang of wire thieves and recovered two quintals of high tension overhead electricity cable.

The highlight of all the three cases, police sources said, was that all the three gangs busted were operating in their respective regions for years and had never been arrested with such heavy seizures.

Their arrests have drastically brought down the frequency of wire thefts reported from Moradabad, Rampur and Jyotiba Phule Nagar regions which is indicative of the fact that real culprits have been brought to book. Their arrests is sure to help save the UPPCL crores of rupees in terms of property that was being stolen by these gangs on a regular basis.