New Delhi: Six persons
identified as Sanjay Dhawan, Mukesh Kumar, Samay Pal, Avlesh, Himanshu and
Sanjay have been arrested. A tanker used for transportation of stolen
aviation oil from IOCL pipelines, 1,100 litres of aviation oil, instruments
used for making a hole in IOCL pipelines, a car used in the crime, Rs 60,000
cash, a generator and an oil pipe were recovered from their possession.
After many complaints about a gang committing theft of
petrol, diesel, aviation oil from the supply pipelines of the IOC in the
Delhi-NCR area, the Crime Branch mounted active surveillance to check the crime.
On September 5, acting on a tip-off, that members of the gang were coming in
the Nihal Vihar area to sell the stolen fuel in a tanker and a car, police laid
a trap and arrested the gang members.
According to police, gang members Samay Singh and Mukesh
Kumar had good knowledge of the locations of IOC supply pipelines. They were
committing this crime since last more than one and half years. First of
all, they choose the area where a tanker could easily reach the pipeline,
preferably in a field of fullly-grown crops, to conceal themselves from passing
public as well as IOC security.
The gang always performed their operations at night, with
Avlesh and Himanshu digging to the pipeline, while two members of the gang were
deployed to keep watch for any person or vehicle coming toward them. After
digging down to the pipeline, they fitted a valve on it with the help of clamp,
punctured the pipeline with the help of a specially-made hand run drill machine
through the valve, fitted a pipe on the valve and put its other end in the
tanker. On opening or releasing the valve, oil flowed into the tanker through
the present pressure in the pipeline. After filling the tanker, they closed the
valve, left it there, covered up the hole and left the place.
“All the work related to digging and extracting the oil
was done at midnight. They used to sell the oil at various places in Delhi to
the persons who further sold it in retail illegally to various users,”
said DCP Crime, Bhisham Singh.
