India, Aug. 5 -- The police arrested seven persons and busted an alleged MTNL cable theft racket in the early hours of Tuesday after catching the accused digging up a road in south Mumbai while posing as civic workers.

Police said the accused were caught near Berkley Palace on Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy Road. They had allegedly used a JCB excavator to dig up the road and had already removed around 70 metres of underground copper cable, which was loaded into a tempo. The group had also brought a Honda City car to the spot and were wearing reflective jackets to pass themselves off as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contract workers.

"We acted on a tip-off and raided the spot. During the operation, we found that the accused were pos...