Mumbai Crime: Adulterated furnace oil racket busted, three arrested

The gang transported the furnace oil from JNPT to Mumbai based BPCL oil fields but in the middle of the route, they would park the tanker and remove almost one-fourth of the oil and fill the tankers with water

Mumbai crime branch's Unit-IX busted a major oil theft racket and arrested three accused in connection with the crime. They have also seized three tankers filled with adulterated furnace oil from the accused. According to the crime branch officials, the accused are identified as Mohammad Yakun Mohammed Nasim Siddiqi (26), Saifu Mohammad Nafis Khan (48) and Raju Kailash Saroj (32). The mastermind behind the racket is still at large.

While speaking to Mid-Day, Akbar Pathan DCP detection stated, "The gang transported the furnace oil from JNPT to Mumbai-based BPCL oil fields. In the middle of the pick-up and drop locations, the gang had identified a dark spot where they would park the oil tankers and remove almost one-fourth of the oil and fill the tankers with water." Sources from the crime branch stated, "This is not a small theft as this racket is not new. They are habitual offenders and have been committing this crime for a long time. The tanker with adulterated oil would pass the security check inside the BPCL storage area and yet no officials from BPCL noticed. This forced us to put BPCL's concerned officials under our scanner and soon they will be summoned for questioning."

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The oil tankers have five chambers to keep the oil safe during the time of any fire incidents. If the oil catches fire in one chamber, then only that particular compartment will be affected while the rest will be safe. If the capacity of the tanker is 25 thousand litres, then each compartment contains 5 thousand litres of oil.

The accused used to discharge oil completely from one compartment and transfer it into an empty tanker which was already stationed in the parking. Later, the accused would fill the empty space with water,” Pathan stated. "The furnace oil would then be sold in the black market at a lower price. If we believe that these accused stole oil from only three tankers in a day which accounts to stealing around Rs 5 lakh oil a day which further add to Rs 1.5 crore oil a month," he added.

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A team was formed by the senior official of crime branch, Mahesh Desai which involved Inspector Asha Korke, Sanjeev Gavde, API Sudhir Jadhav, Sharad Dharade, PSI Walmik Kore, Vijayendra Ambavade and other officials. The team rushed to the spot and recovered the three company sealed tankers. Later BPCL team was invited to take a sample from the tanker and check if the oil was adulterated or pure.

The BPCL team took the samples from each compartment of the tanker and tested it in their laboratory to which they found one of the compartment had 100 per cent water. The crime branch officials then registered a case under sections 379, 462, 472, 484, 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code and start looking for the other accused who is believed to be the mastermind behind the entire racket.

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