Five persons have been arrested for alleged involvement in several cases of pilferage of crude oil from underground pipelines of oil companies. They are said to be involved in several such cases in Rajasthan and Haryana.
Acting on a tip-off, a Delhi Police Crime Branch team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Bir Singh mounted a raid at Mangolpuri Chowk and arrested Mohammad Shamid, Bishan Singh alias Bishnu, Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Ashok Kumar Jain and Sunil Tiwari alias Daddu. An oil tanker used in the commission of crime was also seized. The gang had gathered to identify new sites for pilfering oil, the police said.
Bihar resident Mohammad Samid purportedly told the police that his gang would take a dhaba on rent near an underground oil pipeline and fix a valve in the pipeline after making a hole in it with a drilling device. A pipe would be connected to the valve to pilfer oil. The gang would remove the pipe in the morning and cover the valve with soil to avoid detection. The oil was sold to Nangloi resident Ashok Kumar Jain.
In 2010, the gang dug up a 170-foot tunnel connecting an Indian Oil Corporation pipeline in Jhajjar to a rented warehouse to pilfer oil. The pipe used for pilfering passed through residential area and agricultural land. It got damaged during cultivation, causing the oil to spill over the fields. When the gang members came to know about it, they abandoned the warehouse.
Bishan Singh is a resident of Uttarakhand. Mukesh belongs to Uttam Nagar. Sunil, the tanker driver, hails from U.P.
