2,000 litre diesel siphoned off from IOCL pipeline

ALLAHABAD: Diesel worth several crores of rupees was being siphoned off from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) Barauni-Kanpur pipeline in city’s Karchana police circle, police has said.
“A robbers’ gang targeted the IOCL line near Gadhiyaon village, which is about 30 kilometres from Subedarganj depot. The matter came to light when some local residents saw a mini truck parked there for too long without any reason. After this, they alerted us and we rushed to the spot. Seeing us approaching, the driver and his cleaner fled. They had drawn over 2,000 litres of diesel from the line,” SHO Karchana Deependra Kumar Singh told TOI on Monday.
He said an FIR has been lodged against unknown persons by IOCL inspector Umesh Kumar.
In the FIR, IOCL authorities have pointed out that the supply was being meddled with since July 12. This means that several lakh litres of fuel would have been stolen since the matter came to light on Saturday.
Admitting to the problem, IOCL general manager Barauni-Kanpur pipeline, Manjeet Dhiman, said: “An internal committee is probing the matter.” On the extent of the loss caused by the theft, he said: “The committee would look into it to bring out the details.”
The police would continue its probe.
Sources, meanwhile, said the role of insiders cannot be ruled out. “We are scanning the CCTV foootage to nab the criminals. The owner of the tempo is also being searched,” the SHO said.