‘Underground goldmine’: 40 gangs involved in stealing MTNL cables worth ₹5,000 cr

Operational for at least six months, the gangs have divided the city into four zones, with separate gangs operating in south Mumbai, central Mumbai, eastern Mumbai and north Mumbai, police said

MUMBAI: Around 40 different gangs across the city are involved in systematically digging out defunct telecom cables belonging to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and selling the copper extracted from them at a premium, the Mumbai police crime branch has learnt after interrogating 10 people arrested in connection with the theft of underground MTNL cables in Borivali on June 30.

Photo for representation

Operational for at least six months, the gangs have divided the city into four zones, with separate gangs operating in south Mumbai, central Mumbai, eastern Mumbai and north Mumbai, said Vishal Raje from the crime branch (unit 10) who led the team that apprehended four accused from the spot on June 30.

Cumulatively, the gangs have already stolen cables worth ₹1,000 crore, while cables worth another ₹5,000 crore are still buried underneath, sources in the crime branch told Hindustan Times.

Among the 10 arrested accused in the June 30 case was Vinod Yadav, 54 – a clerk-cum-supervisor at MTNL’s Kandivali office who investigators suspect had been “guiding” the gangs, said sub-inspector Sandesh Ingale, the investigating officer in the case.

Metro work alerts gangs

MTNL, once the default telecom service provider in Mumbai, has an expansive network of underground telecom cables criss-crossing the city. With mobile phones gradually replacing landlines and private players dominating the sector, most of the underground copper cables have been rendered useless, sources in MTNL told HT.

Gangs involved in cable theft realised that the underground cables were a “goldmine” when several MTNL cables were broken during digging for the Ghatkopar-Versova Metro line, said Raje.

Over the past few months, the police have registered several first information reports (FIRs) and arrested suspects in connection with the alleged theft of MTNL copper cables.

On September 9, 2025, the Amboli police arrested eight men who were trying to steal cables measuring 1,110 metres and worth ₹58 lakh from Jogeshwari West, by impersonating MTNL employees and contractors.

Two months later, on December 15, 2025, the Charkop police arrested five people from Kandivali and seized a tempo with 80-90 pieces of MTNL cables, each measuring 10 feet in length and 3 inches in diameter.

On March 16, nine more people were arrested from Mulund for trying to steal MTNL cables while posing as employees of the public sector telecom company.

On June 30, a crime branch team led by Raje and Ingale apprehended four men trying to steal MTNL cables beneath the Vasant Marvel Road near the Magathane telephone exchange in Borviali. The police seized around 985 metres of cables worth ₹39 lakh from the accused, besides vehicles, machinery, and tools worth ₹1 crore used to dig roads and transport the cables.

While Ayub Khan, the alleged leader of the gang, is absconding, the arrest of MTNL clerk-cum-supervisor Vinod Yadav alerted the police to the involvement of employees of the telecom company in the cable theft racket.

Well-planned ops

Sources in the crime branch said the operations run by the gangs are very well-planned. MTNL employees guide the gangs regarding the precise spots where dead cables are lying. The gangs then employ labourers who wear reflective vests to make it look like they are MTNL employees. They place “work-in- progress” boards bearing the MTNL logo and deploy JCBs to dig the roads, pull out the underground cables, and transport them to a safe location, the sources said.

“The high price that copper fetches is the reason these gangs can afford heavy machinery like JCBs to dig out the underground cables and transport them in trucks and tempos,” said Navanath Dhavale, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch (Detection I).

“Apart from MTNL employees, some gangs also pay bribes to local police and local leaders, to ensure they can carry out the thefts smoothly, without getting caught,” a crime branch officer said. In case those pulling out the cables are nabbed by the police, bribes ensure that masterminds are never touched, the officer noted.

According to investigators, the stolen cables are taken to Turbhe MIDC, forested areas in Borviali, or far outside the city, where huge fires are made to burn the jelly-filled cable and separate the copper and aluminium from the plastic. The extracted metals are then sold to traders at high prices.

HT contacted the chairman and managing director of MTNL for comments on the issue, but did not receive any response.

The MTNL cable thieves are now targeting BSNL, which has cables all over Maharashtra, crime branch sources said.