After blowing the lid off a well-spread network of water mafia in Sewri’s slums, the Sewri police has now unearthed yet another racket of oil theft, wherein the oil mafias had laid down an illegal underground pipeline running over a kilometre to steal oil from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Ltd, which could have cost tax payers dearly.
The plan of the oil mafia was nixed before they could steal this particular oil, known as LSHFHSD, and sell it to ships, which use it as fuel.
Acting on a tip off that a huge pipeline has been laid under the ground to steal oil, the Sewri police reached the spot in Gaadi adda area outside the eastern side of Sewree railway station where three pipes have been laid about 12 feet under the ground.
One of them is a water pipeline and the second one belongs to the IOC. The third pipeline, the police said, is defunct. Next to these three pipelines the oil mafias had laid their own pipeline and its mouth ended next to a hole made in the pipeline of IOC.
Senior police inspector Rajendra Trivedi of Sewri police said, “The oil mafias had made a hole of half an inch and made an outlet to attach it with their pipe. This pipeline laid by the oil mafia went through Sewri area till Zakaria bunder road, which is more than a kilometre.”
“Most of the line moves through the boundary line of railway tracks and a motor to pull the oil was found planted inside a gutter next to the railway tracks,” said PSI Rajaram Pol.
An FIR has been registered under various relevant sections of the IPC, the Petroleum & Mineral Pipelines Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984.
