Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 1: The policemen attached to Panambur station here arrested a person accused of stealing stainless steel flanges worth about four lac rupees from inside the yard of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) here.

He has been identified as Siraj from Panjimogaru. His accomplice, Prakash, who is a crane operator by profession, fled from the scene, apprehending arrest.

On Saturday June 29, policemen on patrol duty saw that flanges were being loaded onto a goods rickshaw near ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Ltd office at Jokatte. They also found that these flanges had been hidden inside the tool box of a crane. Suspecting that something was fishy, the policemen subjected the concerned men to intensive questioning, upon which they found that these flanges had been stolen from the yard of MRPL.

The police have seized a crane and good rickshaw in addition to flanges weighing over 500 kg and worth about four lac rupees. The fact that these things were stolen from inside the premises of a company having elaborate security arrangements have made the policemen to believe that insiders were acting in connivance with the thieves.

The police have asked the concerns owning these flanges to contact Panambur police station to claim ownership, as the policemen do not have information about the ownership details of these flanges as of now. They only know that they belonging to some contracting firms functioning inside MRPL.

It is said that the policemen received telephonic calls from certain people’s representatives to bring pressure on the policemen to let off the arrested person without registering a case.