The city police have unearthed several cases in the past where petrol was being siphoned off from petrol tankers for sale in the black market. However, it is not just parked petrol tankers that are at risk. Criminals have been known to siphon off petrol from parked cars and bikes too.
“There have been a few such incidents. People who siphon the fuel off other vehicles are sometimes those who race on bikes. They do it when the vehicle is parked and no one is around,” said a police officer.
Cars, police said, are easy to take petrol out of. Motorbikes are a little harder to open up. “They obtain keys that open different locks and use them to open the fuel tank of bikes. After that, it’s easy work,” said an officer. All that people can do against these petrol thieves is to park the vehicle in a safe location and check the petrol gauge to see that nothing has been stolen.
A not-so-funny prank
The Kochi city police control room last month received a call informing them that three men in an autorickshaw had snatched a chain weighing about five sovereigns from a woman walking along Premier junction. Officials from different police stations were immediately pressed into service to arrest the culprit and the police successfully managed to trace the autorickshaw the same night. On further investigation, the police found that the autorickshaw had never travelled to Kalamassery on the day.
The next step for the police was to trace the complainant to find out more about the incident. After much work, the police discovered that the call was a fake complaint.
A man named Shamsudheen of Alappuzha allegedly made the complaint to try and trap three of his colleagues. He felt snubbed because his colleagues had not asked him to accompany them when they were leaving for one of the colleagues’ hometown.
The accused, who was allegedly drunk at the time, followed the trio in a car with his boss and called the police.
Needless to say, the Kalamassery police duly arrested Shamsudheen on charge of giving false information to the police.
