The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Engineer among 3 held for selling petroleum products worth lakhs to transporter: Police
PILFERAGE RACKET
THREE PERSONS, including an engineer, have been arrested for allegedly providing additional petroleum products worth lakhs of rupees to a transporter from a supply depot of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in Bijwasan.
Investigation has revealed that the accused have been part of a pilferage racket for the last four years and they had been supplying petroleum products in exchange of Rs 5 lakh each month.
Confirming the arrest, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said, “We have arrested Shiv Parsad Ramesh Kumar, Ved Pal and Vinod Kumar, employees of outsourcing companies hired by BPCL. The arrest was made after we found crucial evidence against them. Now we are looking for Nishant, the owner of these trucks, who is absconding. We are also probing the role of senior officials of petroleum companies.”
The engineer and other workers are part of a pilferage racket, allegedly involving officials of petroleum companies and truck drivers, currently being probed by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch.
Delhi Police had earlier arrested a truck driver for allegedly stealing 8,000 litres of petrol from the Bijwasan supply depot every day. The accused, who ferried petroleum products from the depot to petrol pumps, allegedly used to smuggle the fuel out by hiding it inside a chamber in his truck, said police.
During questioning, the arrested accused divulged the names of the other three suspects, said police sources, adding that while Shiv Parsad was part of the technical department, the other two were suppliers.
“After making the first arrest, a team of the inter-state cell of the Crime Branch recently visited the depot and found 10 supplying motors with new electrical meters, while three of them still had old meters. Parsad allegedly tampered with three meters, set a password and shared the code with both suppliers. Both suppliers would give additional petroleum products and then change the reading of the meter,” added police sources.
While a truck ferrying petroleum products can carry 20,000 litres, the accused driver used to procure 2,000 extra litres and hide it in a chamber. They would then sell the additional petrol to their customer in Greater Noida’s Hamirpur.
“The two arrested suppliers were giving extra attention to these two particular truck drivers and used to call them four times in a day. Police have also conducted raids at a godown in Hamirpur village and recovered petrolandotherequipment,”said sources.
Delhi Police found out about the racket after senior officials of oil companies told Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma that several gangs in Delhi were involved in the theft and sale of petrol, diesel and kerosene. Later, R S Chauhan, deputy general manager of Indian Oil Corporation, filed a police complaint alleging pilfering of petroleum products from the company’s pipelines.
A BPCL spokesperson said, “BPCL had written a letter on September 8 to the SHO of Kapashera Border police station, even before the lorries were intercepted and caught by the police on September 12 that we have received information about the theft of petroleum products by tank lorries in the Bijwasan area, asking them to heighten the surveillance in the Bijwasan area and take steps to prevent such illegal acts. BPCL suspended the entire fleet of transporter M/s. Nishant Transport with immediate effect and requested the police to investigate, identify and book the culprits and towards this whatever assistance was required was extended to the police team. We were informed by the police that contract workmen belonging to a contractor outsourced by BPCL have been involved in this entire episode. Two people belonged to M/s. Tiwari and Co. and one person belonging to M/s. Chetan Bros. were involved and arrested.”
Thespokespersonsaidthatafter it was informed that these people were involved BPCL formally submitted a police complaint on September 19 to initiate criminalproceedingsagainstthe individuals and the transporter.