KalingaTV News Network
Angul: In a major breakthrough, Odisha Police has arrested as many as 12 persons including mastermind Vineet Gupta from different parts of the state for alleged oil pilferage from Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s (IOCL) Jharsuguda-Paradip Pipeline here on February 13.
Briefing media persons here on Monday, Angul SP Brijesh Kumar Rai said, “ A special team headed by Angul SDPO Harihar Pani arrested as many as 12 inter-state oil thieves including mastermind Vineet Gupta of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh for stealing diesel from Jharsuguda-Paradip IOCL pipeline.”
“Besides kingpin Vineet Gupta, the other arrested thieves include Karan Sharma of Delhi, Raj Kumar Verma of Awasthi, Ranjan Singh of Angul, Subrat Das, Kmaskhya Prasad, Prafulla Pradhan (All belong to Angul district) Gouri Shankar Prusti , Madan Mohan swain, Abhimanyu Bhola (All belong to Cuttack district), Dhananjay Dwidei of Jajpur, and Basisht Sahu of Tarini Filling station in Angul,” he added.
The police also seized 2 tankers, 1 Innova car, 1 Scorpio, 1 Indica car, and 1 I20 car involved in the fuel racket as well as Rs 4,56,000 in cash from the possession of the accused , Rai claimed.
Mastermind Vineet Gupta, a mechanical engineer and son of an IOCL employee, created two groups to steal oil from IOCL pipeline. The police assessed that a total of around 49000 litres of diesel were stolen from the IOCL pipeline and sold to Angul based Tarini Petrol pump.
Investigation is still on and the police team will intensify its raid in various places to nab the persons involved in the IOCL fuel racket, said Angul SP.
Ms Kalinga