Tankers’ blast in Hyderabad: Garage owner, brother arrested, five still absconding

HYDERABAD: In connection with the fuel tankers blast in Medipally police limits two days ago, two persons who were illegally extracting fuel from oil tankers in the guise of running a welding shop in Chengicherla were arrested. Five drivers, who are also accused in the case, are absconding.
The arrested persons are garage owner, B Raju Kulal and his brother B Jagadeep Kulal, both natives of Medipally.

The police have seized 10 oil tankers, two cars and bikes each apart from `7.49 lakh cash from their possession. Police have booked them under section 338, 406, 379, 411 of the IPC and 3 & 4 of Petroleum Act 1934, sec 3 & 4 of Property Damage Act. They are currently under judicial remand in Cherlapally prison.

Speaking at a media conference, joint commissioner Tarun Joshi said that the garage was being run illegally in a plot for the last 13 years. He said that Raju and Jagadeep are siblings and t Raju was known to be an expert in opening sealed valves in fuel tankers and welding them back without leaving any scope for suspicion.

On Friday, two oil tankers went up in flames leading to a massive explosion at a welding shed in Chengicherla. As many as 16 persons were injured in accident.

One of the tankers suffered a blast, the rear portion of the tanker flung into air and landed on the nearby building whereas the front portion fell elsewhere. While the workers at the shed sensed the disaster and fled from the scene, the passersby who were proceeding on the road sustained burn injuries. Five bikes were gutted and widespread panic was caused in the locality.

Raju and Jagadeep hail from Chincholi village of Karnataka. About 10 years ago, they moved into the premises. Due to lack of expected returns from real estate business, the duo started pilferage. They bought their own oil tankers and were engaged in HPCL and Essar Oil Limited in Kakinada.

The loaded oil tankers come to the garage where the duo removed the tanker’s seal to pilfer fuel and welded them back to seal it. They, police said, would sell the fuel in grey market at higher prices lesser than the market price. The accused purchased various properties through this illegal business, police added. The accused were previously were booked on charges of cheating and under Essensial Commodities Act by Medipally and Ghatkesar police.

Man injured in fuel tanker blast succumbs

The 25-year-old D Venkatesh Naik, who received over 94 pc burns during the fuel tankers explosion two days ago, succumbed to injuries at Gandhi Hospital on Sunday night. Naik, a native of Hussainapuram village in Kurnool district was an MTech graduate. He was working as a technician at the Chengicherla RTC bus depot on an outsourcing basis.