The Tardeo police have registered a case against unidentified persons for allegedly stealing copper cables supplying electricity to street lights along the Mumbai Coastal Road in Worli.
The theft came to light on Wednesday night, when the staff of the contractor engaged by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for road maintenance noticed that several lights were not functional and subsequently found that electric supply cables in those stretches were missing, police officers familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times.
“We have registered a case based on a complaint from Tuffankumar Panda, 36, a project manager with Top Turbo Engineers Private Limited,” an officer from the Tardeo police station told HT.
The Vikhroli-based company has been contracted by the BMC to maintain and repair the coastal road for the next five years.
How the theft came to light
According to the police, while patrolling the coastal road on Wednesday night, the staff of the Vikroli-based firm noticed that several streetlights near the NSCI (National Sports Club of India) in Worli were not functional. The electrical engineer with the patrol team ran a check and discovered that power supply cables were missing from several poles along the stretch.
“The patrol team shared the information with the central control room of the coastal road, which confirmed that cables were indeed missing and likely stolen by some unidentified persons,” the officer quoted earlier said. The total value of the stolen four-core copper cables was around ₹3 lakh, the officer noted.
{{/usCountry}}“The patrol team shared the information with the central control room of the coastal road, which confirmed that cables were indeed missing and likely stolen by some unidentified persons,” the officer quoted earlier said. The total value of the stolen four-core copper cables was around ₹3 lakh, the officer noted.
{{/usCountry}}Accordingly, on Thursday, the Tardeo police booked unidentified persons for the alleged theft under section 303 (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“We are checking CCTV footage from the area to identify the thieves,” the officer said.
Cables worth nearly ₹1,000cr stolen over past 6 months
As reported by HT earlier, copper cables worth nearly ₹1,000 crore belonging to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) have been stolen over the past six months alone, by around 40 gangs which are operational across the city. The accused in one of the cases described MTNL’s underground cable network as a “goldmine”, as copper extracted from the cables sells at ₹1,300 per kilo.
While numerous cases have been registered across the city for alleged theft of MTNL copper cables, this is the first time that cable thieves have targeted cables belonging to other entities, police said.