A unique case of theft has been reported in Mumbai's Dadar area, where thieves posed as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials to dug up a footpath. After doing so, they stole copper wires valued at INR 6-7 lakh. They targeted the underground telephone lines of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).
The incident came to light after after MTNL customers began to complain about their landline phones not working. When MTNL workers went to investigate, they found that underground copper phone transmission line wires were missing and a 200-metre section of the road and pavement had been dug up of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road and the footpath between Dadar TT Circle and Maheshwari Udyan. The stolen copper was found missing from utility lines buried beneath the footpath.
On May 31, the MTNL officers complained about this to the Matunga police. The police began investigating the situation after the complaint from MTNL, which claimed that over 400 of its phone lines had tripped in the Dadar-Matunga area.
On the other hand, after seeing the footpath dug up, locals also approached the BMC about it in the first week of June. It should be noted that the footpath in question was levelled recently after two weeks of work by the BMC.
After this, civic body workers were dispatched to investigate the situation. The thieves had put up barricades with placards of BMC work on municipal projects to make sure that they didn't get noticed. They only worked after 11 pm for smooth functioning.
A number of copper wires were still present in the dug-up footpath. It was expected that the thieves would come back to retrieve those wires. The Matunga police set up a trap at the location where the thieves were expected to dig the footpath.
The police officials kept watch over the location from private cars. When the thieves arrived, they were caught and taken into custody. They were all scrap traders whose goal was to sell the copper wires.
Manish Maganlal Jain, Naresh Gopal Ahire, Nikku Chanilal Gupta, Mahesh Mallesh Budamula, Kailas Devdutt Jadhav and Ashok Ramesh Suryavanshi have been identified as the accused. A local court remanded them in custody until June 16.
Six individuals have been arrested by the Matunga police so far. The price of copper is currently INR 845 per kilogram. Sources suggest that similar incidents might be occurring in other areas like Matunga, Kings Circle, Wadala, and Shivaji Park, where roads have been dug up.
The authorities believe that more people were involved in the crime since such digging work is not possible by five people. The police is working to track down the other members of the group. The investigation is ongoing.
Share
Tweet
