New Delhi: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police have busted a racket that was involved in stealing oil from the Indian Oil tankers in the national capital, an official said Sunday.
For the crime, the kingpin of the racket, identified as Amarjit, and his assistant Akash were arrested while four other people were apprehended.
Notably, the oil tankers are fitted with an advanced locking system to avoid any kind of theft, mixing and for the safety purpose as the contents are highly inflammable. The system is operated with an OTP shared by oil depot officials with the petrol pump owners. Yet the accused Amarjeet managed to find a way to bypass the system and steal the oil, without breaking the seal.
At the end, to stop the theft from being detected, oil tanker drivers degrade the air pressure in one of the tires of the tanker, so that the gauge shows full quantity due to tilting. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Vichitra Veer said there was information at Crime Branch about a racket involved in stealing of oil from the Indian oil tankers.
“To develop the information and take legal action a team was constituted and it was revealed that one accused namely Amarjeet is involved in such activity at Mundka, Delhi,” the DCP said.
After gathering all kinds of information, the police conducted a raid at a specified location in village Mundka, Delhi where accused Amarjeet was found present on the spot along with some other people. “The property was a vacant plot and two Indian Oil tankers and also one Tata Ace with four drums was found parked there. Two persons were getting the oil dropped from the side box of the tankers in buckets to be emptied in drums placed in Tata Ace,” the senior official said.
All the present persons were interrogated and it was revealed that tankers used to get the oil from the Indian Oil depot situated at Tikri Kalan, Delhi destined to petrol pumps. Accordingly, on the basis of the complaint of the owner of one of the tankers, an FIR was registered under sections 381, 285, 427, 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at the Crime Branch police station.
During investigation, it was revealed that accused Amarjeet had rented the said property at Village Mundka, Delhi having enough space for parking of oil tankers. It was near the oil depot situated in Tikri Kalan, Delhi and not very off road to show deviation of oil tankers from the main road.
“The accused Amarjeet induced several drivers of oil tankers who used to wait outside the oil depot for tea or relax for the time to get their turn to fill up the oil tankers. He convinced the oil tanker drivers to not be detected stealing the oil in small quantities from the oil tanker with the capacity of more than 10,000 liters,” the official said.
As per the police investigation so far, it has been disclosed that accused Amarjeet buys the stolen oil at the rate of Rs 50 per liter and sells to small vendors in Kirari and nearby areas with the margin of Rs 20 per liter.
(IANS)