MUMBAI, Aug. 17 -- It looked like routine repair work. A JCB machine at the site, men in reflective safety jackets digging up the road in the dead of night, even documents to show they were contractors for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). But the scene on Road Number 29 near Dalda Company in Sion was anything but official. When residents tipped off the Sion police around 3 am, officers first assumed it was genuine roadwork scheduled at night to avoid traffic chaos. It was only when the labourers began tugging out thick copper cables that suspicions were raised. A team led by inspector Santosh Shewale intervened - and busted a racket that had almost pulled off another high-value copper heist. The police arrested 15 men from the spot, but the alleged mastermind, Pratik Mohite, managed to slip away. Those caught were identified as Niraj Saraf, 30, Velu Kunder, 42, Dinesh Mokal, 39, Yash Ghorad, 25, Santosh Dalvi, 38, Akash Dhotre, 22, Aman Chaudhary, 21, Vikram Agarwal, 42, Sanjay Gaund, 29, Nitin Gajabhare, 30, Sachin Dasar, 24, Nikhil Bawiskar, 23, Mahesh Kumar, 26, and Miraj Mansuri, 32. "They had organised everything - from heavy machinery to forged paperwork - to pass off as legitimate MTNL contractors. Even the workers believed they were on an official job," said a police officer. The arrested accused have been remanded to police custody till August 17. Copper, a critical component in MTNL's ageing but sprawling fixed-line network, sells for nearly Rs.850 per kg in the scrap market. For organised gangs, digging out kilometres of abandoned or active cables translates into windfall profits. Past thefts have involved cables worth anywhere between Rs.6 lakh and Rs.21 lakh. This is not the first time Mumbai has seen such audacious cable thefts. In April this year, HT reported how Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi's complaint about her dead landline connection in Goregaon had led MTNL to uncover one of its biggest cable heists - 2,736 metres of copper wire, worth Rs.12 lakh, stolen from ducts across eight locations. Eight months earlier, the Matunga police had arrested five scrap dealers who had employed daily wagers to impersonate civic workers, dig up footpaths and roads, and rip out cables. While police have arrested foot soldiers and scrap dealers in several such cases, the masterminds have often remained elusive. In the latest Sion case, Mohite is suspected of running the operation and duping several of those now in custody into believing they were working on an authorised MTNL contract. Police have booked the accused under sections 303 (theft), 324 (mischief) and 62 (attempt to commit offences) of the BNS....