Angry customers tied a technician to a mobile tower but it was his own idea so his telecom company would fix two years of bad network in village

Villagers in a Fatehpur village tied a telecom technician to a mobile tower on Thursday evening, angry over network problems that they say had gone on for nearly two years, according to a report by the Times of India.

What looked like a straightforward case of villagers venting their anger soon took an unusual turn, with sources suggesting that the technician himself had asked to be tied up, hoping it would finally force his company to act on a complaint that had gone unresolved for two years.



Technician was there to check power supply

The technician, Adityabhan Singh, had gone to Hardauli village to check on power supply when a group of villagers gathered around him and got into a heated argument about the poor mobile network in the area. As per the Times of India report, one of the villagers suggested that tying him to the mobile tower would fix the problem, and the group went ahead with it, holding him captive for around two hours.

The idea was reportedly his own

What came out later, as per sources cited by the Times of India, was that the technician had asked the villagers to do this himself. He reportedly felt that being tied to the tower would work as proof for his company that the network complaint needed urgent attention, something plain requests had failed to achieve over the past two years.

Video went viral, alerted police

A villager recorded the incident on video, and the clip soon spread on social media. According to the Times of India, police learned about the matter through this video after another local resident alerted them. Officers attached to the 112 helpline rushed to the spot, freed the technician from the villagers, and took him to the police station for further procedure.

In his complaint to the police, Singh said the argument with villagers started the moment he reached the spot, and things escalated quickly once one of them proposed tying him up. He said he was held near the base of the tower for close to two hours before police arrived and rescued him.

Villagers say network never improved

Villagers told the Times of India that they had been facing network trouble for close to two years, and this had started affecting everyday things like phone calls, internet access, and other online work. They also said they were paying high recharge amounts every month despite getting barely any usable network in return, which they said had caused them both inconvenience and financial loss.

According to the villagers, a private telecom company had installed the mobile tower in Hardauli around two years ago. At the time, residents had expected that the tower would finally solve their connectivity troubles. However, they allege that the network problem never really went away even after two years, and there was no one from the company willing to hear out their grievances despite repeated complaints.

A calculated move, not just a protest

The Times of India report also noted that the technician's decision to let himself be tied up appears to have been a calculated move rather than something forced entirely against his will, since he believed only a serious incident like this would get his seniors to take notice and act on the pending complaint.

FIR registered, probe underway

On the technician's complaint, police registered an FIR under section 127(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Bindiki police station against unknown villagers involved in the incident. Investigations into the matter are currently underway, and police are working to identify the villagers seen in the viral video.

The incident has since drawn attention on social media, with many users reacting to the video and discussing the larger, ongoing issue of poor mobile connectivity in rural parts of the state, even in areas where telecom towers have already been set up for years.

(With TOI inputs)