Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Jun 18: Dakshina Kannada district crime intelligence bureau inspector, Vinayak S Nayak, who led other personnel of the department, succeeded in busting a racket involved with theft of petrol from tankers. The racket was functioning at Addahole near Shiradi in the taluk. The raid was conducted on Monday June 17.

A tanker driver named Vijay Kumar from Madhya Pradesh was arrested. 155 litres of petrol stored in three plastic cans was recovered from his possession. During the police raid, Pradeep, driver of another tanker from Uttar Pradesh, and a cleaner, succeeded in giving the police a slip. The policemen, who have confiscated a Maruti Omni van and two tankers from the spot, have registered a case, after which it was transferred to Uppinangady police station. The investigation has now been taken over by police circle inspector of Puttur rural station, Suresh Kumar.

The accused, it is said, used to steal petrol from the tankers while being transported from Mangalore to Bangalore. Several petrol bunks had lodged complaints about shortage in the petrol consignment received by them. The raid was conducted based on reliable information.

It is learnt that the activity of openly removing petrol from tankers had been in place at Addahole since the last over a year by the side of the highway. The police outpost at Nelyady is hardy ten km away from here. It is surprising that the policemen attached to this outpost turned a blind eye towards this operation.  It may be recalled that a similar racket that was in operation on at Budoli near Mani had been busted by the district policemen sometime back.