MUMBAI, July 11 -- The Mumbai police's crime branch has arrested an employee of the state-owned Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) for allegedly helping an organised gang steal underground copper cables worth crores across the city. The accused, Vinod Fundan Yadav, 54, worked as a clerk-cum-supervisor at MTNL's Kandivali office. According to the police, he used to guide the gang by providing them with details and precise locations of underground copper cables laid by MTNL. The crime branch has in recent months busted an expansive racket involving highly organised gangs that exploited road excavation and infrastructure projects across Mumbai to steal valuable underground copper cables using heavy machinery. According to the police, MTNL has laid underground copper cables worth around Rs.5,000 crore across the city, and a sizeable portion has already been stolen by such gangs. The police learned about Yadav's alleged role after arresting four men on June 30. They were allegedly posing as labourers hired by MTNL and digging along Vasant Marvel Road near the Magathane Telephone Exchange in Borivali, intending to steal underground copper cables laid underground. The police said they seized around 985 metres of underground MTNL copper cables worth Rs.39 lakh from the gang, along with machinery and tools used to dig roads, and vehicles worth Rs.1 crore to transport the stolen cables. A case has been registered against the quartet at the Kasturba Marg police station under sections 303 (theft) and 324 (mischief causing loss to public property) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 42 (fraudulent procurement of telecom identifiers) of the Telecommunications Act. During interrogation, Abdul Shaikh, the main accused, told the police about the involvement of Yadav and Manoj Gupta, 54, a resident of Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, said a police officer. Both were later arrested. According to the police, Yadav had allegedly played a crucial role in the racket by providing the gang with information about the underground cables, including which lines were operational and which were no longer in use. "He used to show them the precise spots from where copper cables could be stolen. The accused used to then steal the underground cables with the help of JCBs and dumpers," said Navnath Dhavale, deputy commissioner of police (detection) at the crime branch....