Madhya Pradesh: Police raid fuel theft hideout in Jabalpur, arrest five for stealing petrol from nearby oil plant

Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): Jabalpur police raided a hideout at Khirkakheda village of Jabalpur and arrested five persons for allegedly stealing petrol from a nearby oil plant. The police seized about 400 liters of petrol and 150 liters of ethanol.

On the basis of information received by the police, police teams from Dhanwantari Nagar were sent to raid at the hideout. During the raid, the police found about a dozen people allegedly involved in the theft.The accused stole the petrol using pipes. They would connect one end of the pipe with a 10,000-galloon oil tanker and the other end to their containers for a 'free' flow of petrol.

Cops arrested arrest five of them, while search is on to nab the rest of them.

Area infamous for fuel theft

Notably, the plants of petroleum companies established in Shahpura Bhitoni area of Jabalpur have become a source of illegal income for many miscreants. The area is infamous for theft of petroleum products from petrol and diesel tankers of big oil companies. There are four depots of Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation. 

Locals allege police involvement

It has been alleged time and again that fuel theft in the area is taking place with the alleged connivance of the officials of the petroleum companies, along with a deep nexus between the tanker drivers and the miscreants. 

This time, the locals have alleged involvement of Shahpura police in the whole racket as the Shahpura police station is at a short distance from the crime spot.