Sources within the Western Railway (WR) suspect that the theft of 18 batteries weighing up to 30 kg each early on Monday was an inside job.
WR officials said the reason behind their suspicions is that the substation from which the batteries were stolen can be accessed only through a railway colony located at King Circle. “There are two major reasons behind us thinking that it was an inside job, primarily the 18 batteries weigh around 30 kg each.
As a result of this, the thieves must have used a small tempo or some vehicle to load the batteries and no one with a vehicle can go unnoticed at this spot. Which is why we suspect people who were involved in this crime were people that the railway workers were familiar with,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
The second reason the official cited is that the only way a vehicle of that size can enter the substation is through the railway colony located at King Circle.
“The substation at Mahim is located on a small island, which acts like a fork segregating the Harbour line’s Andheri-CST track and the Western Railways. So these people have to go through the colony to get to the substation without being stopped. Finally we found the key to the lock of the main entrance thrown a few metres away from the gate,” the official further added.
Meanwhile, the primary failure causing the disruption seen in WR on Monday was of the power, which kept fluctuating from 11.18 am to 12.23 pm.
This was shut down in order to stabilise it but the very batteries that were stolen are usually used as a back up to power the line until then.
The WR had seen a similar theft on May 2, in which as many as 55 batteries of 15 kg each were stolen, following which a First Incident Report (FIR) by the Railway Police Force (RPF) was registered.
The FIR for the incident was yet to be registered by late Monday evening.
