UP STF unearths fuel siphoning racket, 16 arrested

LUCKNOW: In a major crackdown, the UP Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday unearthed a racket involved in black marketing of petrol and diesel meant for public supply. The officials informed that petroleum products worth around ₹2 crore were siphoned every month from the tankers of Indian Oil depot located in Meerut’s TP Nagar.

STF inspector general (IG) of police, Amitabh Yash said the STF team had arrested 16 people involved in siphoning of petrol and diesel from three enclosures meant to store the stolen petroleum products located at few distance from the oil depot.

The IG said the STF sleuths seized nine tankers including five tankers full of petroleum products, huge amount of solvents meant for mixing in it, several master keys used to unlock the sealed tankers without tampering the seal, gauge to measure oil, two motorised suction pumps, ₹4.95 lakh in cash and registers to maintain the oil details.

STF SSP Abhishek Singh said a team led by ASP Alok Priyadarshi raided the enclosures on a specific tip-off and arrested them red handed. The SSP said the enclosures where the petroleum products were siphoned and stored were made at a few distance from the oil depot as all tankers were GPS installed and their location could be tracked if they took any other route. He said the tankers used to enter into the enclosures after coming out of the depot and move towards their destination after the petroleum products were siphoned.

Those arrested were identified as owners of the two enclosures Yogesh and Anil Chowdhary, Yogesh’s brother Lokesh, Anil’s two sons Jani and Mohit, three tanker drivers— Anshul, Ram Babu and Vijay, and eight enclosure workers Krishna, Sonu, Gaurav, Vijay, Anil, Sohanwani, Ranjit and Hamid.

The racketeers used to steal around 1,500 litres of oil daily. “The record says that 15-20 tankers get released from the depot daily. Each tanker contains nearly 1,200 litres of oil and the racketeers used to siphon around 50-100 litres from each tank,” said the STF SSP and added, “As this racket was operational for past many years, it would have stolen oil worth multi-crores so far.”

He said the role of oil depot staff was also suspected as it was not possible that such big racket existed around the depot for so many years and they did not come to know about it. He said the arrested people were booked under different sections of IPC and were being quizzed about the involvement of other people in the crime.