New Delhi:
Five persons were arrested on Saturday for their alleged involvement in theft of crude oil from pipelines in Haryana, police said.
Mohd Shamid, Bishan Singh, Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Ashok Kumar Jain and Sunil Tiwari were arrested when they were on their way in an oil tanker to meet their associates in Delhi, they said, adding that the vehicle has been impounded.
During interrogation, Mr Samid disclosed that he hails from Samastipur in Bihar and that his gang steals crude oil from pipelines of oil companies.
The men used to run dhabas on rent in front of pipeline of oil companies and dig a hole in the pipeline with the help of HDD (Horizontal Drilling Device) machine and fix a valve in the hole, police said.
"From that valve they used to connect a pipe and fill a tanker with crude oil.
The gang used to later sell the oil with the help of Ashok Kumar Jain and Mukesh Kumar Gupta to a person, namely Dinesh Kumar Shukla, who is an active member of the gang and also provides tanker to the gang," a senior police official said.
In 2010, the same gang dug a 170 feet tunnel from a rented godown to an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) pipeline in Jhajjar, Haryana and fixed a plastic pipe for stealing oil.
The plastic pipe, which passed through residential area and agricultural land, later got damaged and crude oil started seeping from cracks. The gang had then fled away from their rented godown when they came to know about this.