Mumbai’s streets are witnessing a new kind of crime wave — not shootouts or gang wars, but copper cable heists. In the past year alone, over 29 cases of MTNL cable theft have been reported across the city. Hundreds of metres of underground copper cable, once powering Mumbai’s landline network, are vanishing overnight — feeding a booming black market for metal.

Men enter manhole while others stand guard, posing as MTNL staff, gang slips underground, tools in hand, vests on, confidence high