Mumbai coastal road cable theft solved, five arrested

Tardeo police have arrested five people, including a minor, for stealing copper cables that powered streetlights on the Mumbai Coastal Road near Worli. The accused, identified as Hussain Kadir Shaikh, Nur Mohammad Amir Khan, Aman Bilal Shaikh, Jakir Shaikh, and a minor, allegedly stole four-core copper cables worth Rs 3 lakh from the stretch near NSCI. Police said the suspects, who are fishermen from Worli, sold the cables to a scrap dealer, who is being traced.

The theft was discovered on Wednesday night when a patrol team from Top Turbo Engineers, the BMC contractor maintaining the road, found several lights non-functional. An electrical engineer confirmed cables were missing from multiple poles. The firm's project manager, Tuffankumar Panda, filed a complaint, leading to a case under Section 303 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Police tracked the suspects using CCTV footage and mobile phone records, noting they had prior criminal records.

This marks the first major theft targeting non-MTNL cables in Mumbai, even as copper cable thefts from MTNL have exceeded Rs 1,000 crore in the past six months, Hindustan Times reports. The arrested adults have been taken into custody, and the minor was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.