Oil pilferage from refinery tankers goes on unabated

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 11

The incident of oil pilferage from tankers coming from Guru Gobind Singh Refinery has come to the fore again. The police arrested a person and seized nine drums containing 2,035 litres of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) at Gurusar Sainiwala village on the Bathinda-Dabwali road in the district.

The police claimed that they had got a tip-off that accused Amit Kumar of Nakodar and Navjot Singh of Sangat Kalan, in connivance with drivers of oil tankers coming from the refinery, stole petrol, diesel and ATF from the tankers parked near Ekam Dhaba at Gurusar Sainiwala and later they would sell the fuel at higher rates. Further, they claimed that acting on the tip-off, they conducted a raid and arrested accused Amit Kumar and seized nine drums containing 2,035 litres ATF. A case under Sections 379 and 411 of the IPC has been registered against both the accused at the Sangat police station.

It is pertinent to mention that incidents of fuel theft from oil tankers coming from the refinery or oil depots in the district have become a challenge for the police as such incidents have been coming to light for the past many years. Besides, many incidents of tankers catching fire while stealing oil have been reported.

Earlier, the police had arrested six drivers who were taking out oil worth Rs 8 lakh from tankers at Phulokheri and Ramsara in the district.

Even the police had arrested seven persons on the charge of stealing bitumen from tankers of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Rama Mandi here.

In the first case, the police had arrested three persons and seized 25 tonnes of bitumen worth Rs 9 lakh at Guthari village. In the second case, the police arrested four persons and seized 250 quintals of bitumen, along with Rs 2.72 lakh in cash, at Talwandi Sabo.

At that time, during the probe the accused had told the police that as fuel was supplied to petrol pumps from depots and the refinery through tankers, they opened the chamber with the duplicate key and stole around 100 to 200 litres of fuel from each oil tanker in connivance with drivers. Later, they sold it to villagers. It is also worth mentioning that after stealing oil in large quantity, thieves store it in a nearby rented accommodation for its sale.