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A battery has been stolen from a traffic post in Jayanagar 3rd Block, South Bengaluru, police said.
A complaint lodged by Mahadevaiah, traffic assistant sub-inspector, at the Jayanagar police station, stated that the battery was stolen from 4th Main Road, 27th Cross.
Speaking to DH, Mahadevaiah said the theft occurred between midnight and 7 am on August 24.
"The signal was working fine when our officer manning the junction left around 11.50 pm on August 23. But when the morning shift policeman reported for work, he found the signal switched off,” he said.
The officer tried to fix it, assuming it had a technical glitch, but later discovered that the battery was missing.
"I was taken aback when I received a phone call about the missing battery. When I reached the location, I didn’t know how to react,” said Mahadevaiah.
A police officer close to the investigation said that they were examining CCTV footage and would make arrests soon.
'Not a premeditated act'
Police suspect the theft could be the handiwork of a drunk individual because only one battery is missing.
"It doesn’t look like a premeditated act. Some drunk individual may have found the battery box unlocked and took it away without thinking too much about making a quick buck,” the officer said.
MN Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said that traffic signal and camera battery thefts were common, but not frequent.
"We had an incident back in 2022 when more than 220 batteries from traffic signals were stolen. We haven't seen any big battery theft after that. But such small thefts keep happening,” he said.
Anucheth noted that a traffic signal battery was estimated anywhere between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 depending on the battery type.