New Delhi: It was such a slickly executed oil heist that they almost got away with it.
A group of eight men, with a history of petty theft, tapped a major underground crude oil pipeline in Rajasthan and siphoned off about 20 tonnes of oil before being arrested by Gujarat ATS and Rajasthan Police last week.
How did they pull it off? Police said the men used their jail connections and precise knowledge of the local 20-km HPCL refinery network to map the exact location of the underground route.
They then dug a three-foot pit in the Parpadar area of Rajasthan’s Balotra district, where the pipeline was buried about six feet underground.
Police said they punctured the high-pressure HPCL pipeline, installed a valve to siphon off the oil, and managed to flee with two vehicles of 10 tonnes of oil each, valued at around Rs 10 lakh.
Police said the gang first filled the first vehicle six days ago, and the second three days ago. They were selling the stolen oil to a resident in Beawar in Rajasthan.
The theft went unnoticed for over two weeks.
A senior Gujarat ATS police officer said it came to light when they received a tip-off that some people from Gujarat and Rajasthan were planning to puncture the HPCL pipeline passing through Balotra district, steal crude oil, and sell it on the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway in Gujarat.
The officer told ThePrint they had been keeping a watch on organised crime networks following the tip-off. The Gujarat ATS formed two teams to investigate.
One team found a suspect carrying half a litre of oil and detained him on the road to Sokhada village on the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway.
They detained him under provisions that allow a police officer to arrest a person without a warrant for a cognizable offence if there is a reasonable suspicion or credible information, provided the arrest is necessary and reasons are recorded in writing.
“The man told the police that this oil was brought from Kaludi village in Balotra district of Rajasthan. After which, the ATS team arrested seven other people involved in the above conspiracy from a dhaba near Tapra in Rajasthan and took them to Jasol post office in Rajasthan,” said the officer.
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‘Daring, frightening, and terrorising’
Shravan Kumar, a resident of Balotra, who works as the site in-charge, said in a police FIR that the HPCL Rajasthan Refinery pipeline at Pachpadra was an important government pipeline, designated under the Petroleum and Mineral Pipelines Act, 1962, for the supply of crude oil.
“This pipeline carries flammable crude oil. This act of theft is extremely daring, frightening, and terrorising. Their actions were capable of causing massive fires, explosions, and destruction of public life. They spread widespread panic among the local population and posed a serious threat to public peace,” Kumar said.
Six of the accused are from Gujarat. They have been identified as Ghanshyam Navinchandra Soni, 54; Jayarajsinh Bharatsinh Chudasama, 34; Ranjit Ramdhani Chaurasia, 48; Ramesh Prahladji Thakur, 41; Sureji Bhopaji Thakur, 32; and Mahesh Babuji Thakur, 32. Of the two others, Mukesh Kumar Shankarlal Meghwal, 44, is from Rajasthan and Dilip Omprakash Yadav, 35, is from Uttar Pradesh.
According to the FIR, “Unidentified individuals have been found to have tampered with and ruptured the high-pressure pipeline, causing damage to public property, and extracting flammable crude oil, thereby stealing the crude oil by installing valves on the pipeline. This theft is believed to have caused a major disaster, a significant environmental hazard, and a serious threat to public safety.”
The ATS officer added that during the interrogation, it was found that they had illegally punctured and installed a valve in the HPCL crude oil pipeline in a three-to four-foot deep pit on the outskirts of Kaludi village in Parpadar area of Balotra district of Rajasthan.
“HPCL, after informing the authorities and investigating the above location with the help of Rajasthan Police, found that a valve was illegally installed in a puncture in the HPCL pipeline in a three-to four-foot deep pit in the ground,” said the officer.
Police have registered a case under the Petroleum and Mineral Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Act, 2011 and under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, at Jasol Post Office, Rajasthan.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)