Mumbai: The Wadala Police Station filed a first information report (FIR) against the driver and cleaner of the tanker in the diesel mafia theft case that this newspaper reported on Thursday.
According to sources, the transport company J N Roadlines, from whose tanker high speed diesel was siphoned off, is in the process of getting blacklisted.
“We have booked a driver and cleaner of the tanker. In the video, they are seen to be siphoning off the fuel. Overall, about 100 litres of high speed diesel was stolen on Wednesday,” Senior Inspector Milind Jadhav said.
Case registered under Section 379
The case has been registered under Section 379 (whoever with the intention to commit theft) of the Indian Penal Code. The complainant in the case is Niranjan Singh Gill of Gill Auto Service in Cotton Green, who suffered the loss.
On Thursday, The Free Press Journal had reported diesel theft from a tanker bound for Gill Auto Service. The tanker went inside the company’s premises at 8.30am and came out by 11am. It is alleged that the tanker immediately took a turn into one of the lanes very close to the oil depot and three people were seen in the video using suction pipes to allegedly remove a portion of diesel despite the tanker having hi-tech electromechanical locking system.
For years now, a mafia has been operating in Wadala-Sewri areas selling fuel to the public at a heavily discounted rate. In June 2022, Mumbai Crime Branch had busted a diesel theft racket and seized 44,000 litres of diesel along with the arrest of two. Likewise, six people were arrested back in December 2020, who were selling diesel at a discount to trucks and buses.
During each of the arrests, police claim that they suspect the involvement of some employees of oil marketing companies as well as transport operators who are hand in gloves with the mafia, the fact is that they continue to do brisk business year-after-year making the police investigations questionable in itself.
