Man digs 150- ft tunnel, siphons off petrol in city

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In a major heist, Delhi police has arrested a scrap dealer after he along with his accomplices dug a 150- feet tunnel to siphon thousands of litres of fuel from Indian oil petrol’s pipeline in west Delhi's Dwarka.

Probe revealed that the heist that involved tapping into the India Oil Company's pipeline had been going on for some time. But, the gang ran out of luck when the police stumbled upon the racket after reports of an explosion in the residential locality at around 9 pm on Tuesday, took place.

According to the police, the dug tunnel measured 2.5 feet wide, enough for a man to crawl to the other end of the tunnel. The accused identified as Zubair, started digging the tunnel from a compound in the area that also served as a godown. The police said they were trying to ascertain the nature of support the gang of thieves received to dig the tunnel.

Preliminary into the matter inquest reveals

The dug tunnel measured 2.5 feet wide, enough for a man to crawl to the other end of the tunnel. The accused Zubair started digging the tunnel from a compound in the area that also served as a godown

that Zubair allegedly told the police that it had taken them three months to dig the tunnel and they had drilled into the pipeline just few days ago.

They apparently were still on a learning curve, one reason why the explosion could have been triggered by their carelessness. This, however, isn't the first time that fuel thieves have been caught tapping into the oil pipelines in west Delhi.

In February last year, the police had busted a gang of thieves that claimed to have drawn fuel worth crores from oil pipelines near the Mathura refinery. According to the police, the mastermind in this case had been puncturing pipelines for nearly a decade. a