“We caught the handlers of the vessel and arrested six people… the diesel was being supplied by an Indonesian ship and deposited to an Indian vessel named Dronagiri Mauli.”
Mumbai : The Yellow gate police have arrested six people with alleged links to the oil mafia for smuggling diesel and selling the same above the market rate. The accused were arrested while they were transporting diesel from an Indonesian ship to an Indian fishing ship.
The police busted the gang after receiving a tip-off about the racket in Ferry Wharf area. “We received information that a few people smuggled fuel out of foreign ships which entered Indian seas carrying goods. They would sell the smuggled diesel at three times the market rate in the Mumbai black market,” DCP Kiran Kumar said.
On Monday, the police sent a team to keep a watch over the goings-on in the area. At around 3 am, two-and-a-half nautical miles off the shore, they found a tug and a fishing trawler being used to transport diesel.
“We apprehended the handlers of the vessel and arrested six people. Investigation revealed that the diesel was being supplied by an Indonesian ship and deposited to an Indian vessel named Dronagiri Mauli,” he added.
The police through the operation have seized more than 11,000 litres of diesel from those arrested. Police have also arrested an Indonesian national who managed the ship. They would sell the diesel to petrol pumps in the city, police said.
Those arrested have been identified as Mohammed Yasir Abdul Aziz Lakdawala (27), Monu Madan Singh (26), Monurul Ismail Mandal (25), Naushad Sartaj Qureshi (39), Akbar Suleiman Subnia (48), Arif Yusuf Baya (24).
They have been booked under various sections of Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance and Supply of Essential Commodity Act, 1980, and Petroleum Products and Maintenance of Production, Storage and Supply Order 1999.
