The Pune police said they launched an inquiry into a racket involved in pilfering fuels from tankers of petroleum companies, arrested four people and were searching for more suspects.
The racket, which was brought to light by the Hadapsar police, is being investigated by the crime branch. It was around two days ago when police received a tip-off that some people were pilfering aviation turbine fuel (AFT) from a tanker that was on the way to Shirdi Airport from a source storage located in Navi Mumbai.
“It is known that when various types of fuels are transported from one place to another in tankers, their routes are traced using tracking devices and there are anti-theft electronic devices that are fitted to these vehicles. Our information suggested that the racketeers were tampering with these systems and stealing the fuels in transit,” said an officer from the Hadapsar police station.
Sources said the investigation led police to a compound in Hadapsar that is away from the main street and secluded because of the tree cover in the area. “Our staff found out that multiple tankers were coming in and out of this compound, which seemingly had no business seeing so much traffic of fuel tankers. As we probed further, we unearthed a fuel pilferage racket,” said an officer from the police station.
Senior inspector Arvind Gokule, in charge of the police station, said, “Around 6.30am on Saturday, we raided the compound we had zeroed in on. We caught suspects pilfering fuels from two tankers of a particular company. They were apprehended and we informed officials of the company for further questioning.”
Police believe the racketeers pilfered different types of fuels including various categories of petrol, diesel and even AFT from tankers of various state-owned and private petroleum companies. Along with the two tankers from which the fuel was being pilfered, police have seized six empty tankers, 14 containers filled with fuels and pumps used for fuel pilferage. “The probe suggests that they were stealing AFT like the rest of the fuels they were stealing. We will specifically investigate what they were doing with the pilfered AFT,” said an officer.
After the initial investigation, the police arrested four people and identified a key racketeer. The arrested suspects were identified as Sunil Yadav (24) and Dajiram Kalel (37), both drivers; Sachin Tambe (40), who runs a transport business; and Shastri Saroj (48), who is a labourer. A search has been launched for Sachin’s brother Sunil, who is said to be a key suspect. Considering the extent of the case, the investigation has been transferred to the crime branch.
A crime branch officer said, “We will be probing the modus operandi of the racket and how the suspects tampered with various systems in place to detect fuel theft and what was their distribution network for the pilfered fuel.”