Cable thief gang busted, 13 held

Thirteen members of a gang have been arrested for their alleged involvement in stealing underground MTNL cable in Delhi’s Rohini, the police said on Tuesday.

A JCB machine and about 10 kg of stolen cables have been recovered from them, they said. On the intervening night of April 6 and 7, Pankaj (21), Lucky (18) and Abhishek (18) were caught red-handed while digging and stealing the cables in Sector 9 of Rohini, the police said in a statement.

Giving details of the arrest, they said a team noticed suspicious activity involving a JCB machine and several people digging near MTNL infrastructure. On being questioned, the men failed to give a satisfactory explanation, so the team detained them.

During interrogation, they disclosed the names of their gang members, leading to the arrest of 10 more people. The gang used a JCB machine to unearth underground cables and extract valuable wire, which was then sold to scrap dealers, the police said, adding that the group was involved in several similar thefts across Rohini.