Jaipur: City police Tuesday unearthed an elaborate diesel theft racket wherein a tunnel was dug from a rented house to tap directly into a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) pipeline in Bagru police station area.DCP (west) Amit Kumar said police arrested one person on the spot, identified as Rajesh Urang (45), a native of Dibrugarh district in Assam, while several others, including the suspected kingpin, are on the run. “On June 6, the HPCL officials informed us about the suspected pilferage of oil from their pipeline. They already completed their examination but could not detect the source of the leakage,” Kumar said. He said that HPCL officials reported a suspected theft from their pipeline after observing unexplained pressure drops. A joint investigation team was formed under the supervision of additional DCP Alok Singhal and ACP (Bagru) Hemendra Sharma. The field operation was led by Bagru SHO Motilal Sharma and DST in-charge Ganesh Saini. As per Kumar, after receiving the information from HPCL, the city police launched an operation from Kalwad to the Bagru area of the city to locate the source of the leakage. “Our teams went door to door to 1,000 houses where the tenants were recently accommodated by their owners. It was during this survey that we found the place of leakage,” Kumar said. After three days of sustained surveillance and fieldwork, the team zeroed in on a newly rented house located in a colony adjacent to the HPCL pipeline. On Tuesday, the house was raided, revealing a tunnel extending towards the underground pipeline. A puncture with a valve was installed for siphoning diesel. Recovered from the site were drums filled with stolen diesel, a pickup truck used for transportation, and tools used for digging the tunnel. An FSL team was called in to collect forensic evidence. During interrogation, the accused revealed that Shravan Singh alias Sardar, a resident of Delhi’s Guru Nanak Vihar, along with his brother-in-law Dharmendra Verma alias Rinku were the masterminded of the operation. Both are absconding. Shravan is a known repeat offender with prior cases of oil theft registered against him in various districts, including Ajmer, Jaipur, Bhatinda, Gurgaon, and Delhi.Police said the accused gang would rent houses near HPCL pipelines, lay concealed tunnels, and siphon diesel, which was then sold in the black market. Surveillance footage, vehicle data, and informant inputs were used to track the suspects over a three-day reconnaissance campaign. “A major search is underway to locate Shravan Singh and his associates, and the police will continue its probe across districts where similar incidents occurred,” Kumar said, adding that the probe has been handed over to the ATS.
Diesel theft from pipeline via tunnel busted in Jaipur, 1 held | Jaipur News
