Two held for crude oil theft in Anand

Anand, May 21 (UNI) Two persons were arrested today for crude oil theft from a closed factory at Isharvada village near Tarapur taluka of the district and 19,800 litres of crude oil was recovered.

Ahmedabad Division RR Cell headed by IG UD Joshi sent a team to Isharvada village that apprehended Bhupendra Someshwara Soni and Mahipatsinh Gharasiya. A person identified as Pratap Chauhan escaped.

The modus operandi of the trio was to stop crude oil tankers leaving Khambhat ONGC depot on way to Vadodara and pilfer two barrels of oil and store it in the defunct factory.

Police sources said the mastermind behind the theft were three men Navrang Rajput, of Sarda Transport Company, Ranoli village, Uday Pratap Rajput also of Ranoli village and Hemant Jayantibhai of Parej village of the district.

Apart from the 19,800 litres of oil the police also seized a generator worth Rs 1 lakh and two fighter machines used to remove oil from the tankers. The total seizure has been estimated at Rs 8.55 lakhs.

UNI