Indian gang held for stealing 50 million liters of crude oil

Police in Rajasthan have cracked a criminal syndicate accused of smuggling more than 50 million liters of crude oil inside water tankers from India’s largest onshore oilfield, an official said yesterday. The theft at the Cairn India oilfield went undetected for nearly six years until police in the western desert state arrested 25 people this week for involvement in the sophisticated smuggling network. Local media reported $7.75 million worth of oil could have been stolen in total from the oilfield run by a subsidiary of British mining giant Vedanta Resources.