Hyderabad : 12 miscreants stole over 1.3 lakh litres of diesel by digging a tunnel to reach the pipeline on the outskirts of Hyderabad at Ghatkesar. The diesel, which was stolen from the pipeline, was sold at various places in the state.

According to the police, Hafeez Aziz Chowdari(42), a resident of Thane, had rented a piece of land, under the garb of using it as a dump yard. Then the accused and his gang laid a fence around the land and erected metal sheets to hide what was going inside. The gang made a hole to the IOCL-BP main pipe using a drilling machine. The stolen diesel was sold at Warangal, Bachupally, Burgula, Koyalkonda, and Dharmabad and in Maharashtra. Almost seven tankers of diesel were sold in that period.

The theft was discovered in the first week of December when IOCL officials noticed that there was a difference in the amount of diesel being sent from the BP centre in Ghatkesar to what was received at the IOCL centre in Cherlapally. Inspecting the quantities, the officials found that total difference stood at 1,30,601 kilolitres (KL) of diesel. It came into light that a hole was drilled to the main pipeline. In all, BP lost 84,365 KL of diesel and IOCL lost 46,236 KL.

The police registered a complaint given by the IOCL and BP officials. After conducting a probe the Police recovered 90.4 lakh cash, a tanker, an SUV, a two-wheeler and a phone which was bought with the money earned by selling stolen diesel , from the gang.

According to the police reports the gang dug for about a week to 10 days to make the tunnel in the land to reach the pipeline, then they installed an electric motor and fixed a hose to pilfer the diesel. The fuel was loaded into a tanker and was sold at various places.

The police have booked a case under IPC Section 379 (imprisonment for theft) and Section 15 (2) of Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines Act (damaging pipeline).

Rachakonda Police said that Hafeez Aziz Chowdari Chowdari from Thane and B. Srinivasulu(32), a local agriculturist were the main persons behind this theft and had invested Rs 15,00,000 to execute this. Along with them Mohd Abdul Abrar of Bahadurpura, and M. Jayakrishna of Warangal who was the owner of the tanker were arrested along with them and are currently in the custody of police.

Eight others – Jiyahul Chand Shaik, Sunil Madivar, Vasu of Mumbai, R. Rambali Yadav, Suresh Kumar Prajapathi and Amzad Khan of Mumbai, V. Srikanth of Warangal and Naresh Reddy of Suryapet are absconding and the police have launched a hunt to trace them.

Commissioner Bhagwat added that Hafeez, Jiyahul, Abrar, and Srinivas had become friends when they were in a Mumbai jail and hatched the plan to steal diesel from the pipeline.

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