All of the accused are residents of Taran Village in Bihar. (Representational)
Eight people, who used to steal MTNL cables by posing as contractors, were arrested in west Delhi, police said on Tuesday.
The accused, identified as Moshir Siddaquee (25), Azharuddin (33), Pravez (24), Shakib (35), Laddu (24), Manjur Alam (39), Shahid (43) and Mohammad Yusuf, used to prepare forged MTNL orders to dig out the cables, they said.
On the interviewing night of August 31 and September 1, they went to A-1 Block in Janakpuri and dug out cable with the help of a JCB machine and stole the wire, a senior police officer said.
"During investigation, on the basis of a technical surveillance, Siddaquee and Pravez were arrested. On their instance, forged work orders and authority letters were also recovered," Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Deepak Purohit said.
Later, the other accused were also arrested, police said.
All of them are residents of Taran Village in Bihar. They came to Delhi and started living in Seelampur area, the DCP said.
Azharuddin, who works as a scrap dealer in Seelampur, gathered all the persons of his village and planned to steal the cables. They arranged a JCB machine to dig out the cables, police said.
They first identified the sites from where they have to steal the cables. After this, they used to prepare a forged work order of that site and used that paper as a government document, they said.
Later, they used to arrange a JCB machine and dig out cables from the site and stored them in a godown of Azharuddin in Seelampur.
Thereafter, they used to cut the cables and took out the copper wires from the cables and sold the same in local markets, the officer said.
A total length of 60 feet stolen wires, forged MTNL orders to dig cable, one JBC machine, one motorcycle, 10 hammers and other items were recovered from their possession, they added.