Daijiworld Media Network – Beltangady (SP)

Beltangady, Apr 4: On Sunday April 3, a complaint was filed in the local police stating, about pilfering diesel worth lacs of rupees by rigging a hole in the underground petroleum pipeline of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd between Mangalore and Bangalore. A systematic racket of stealing diesel was operational at Kerchelu in Odilnala village in the taluk.

A hole was found to have been carved out in the pipeline that is embedded about ten feet deep under the earth. By fitting two gate valves, the diesel was diverted to the compound of a house nearly two kms away. This pipeline passes through compounds of different persons. It is clear from the spot that the pipeline was operative since long, although the company officials claimed that the theft had been occurring since the last few days. It is apparent that an organized gang of many persons had set up this facility, as evidenced by the way in which the operation was conducted by spending lot of money for digging in the earth, fixing of gate valves, and laying pipeline to such a long distance.

The pipeline ends at the house of a family, one of the members of which is a tanker driver. The youth in the house have gone missing. It is suspected that his tanker was used to transport pilfered diesel.

District superintendent of police (SP), Labhu Ram, and assistant SP, Rohi Katoch, visited the spot on Sunday evening and guided investigation. The locals said they have no information about petroleum theft. No arrests have so far been made.

In the past, several such theft cases were unearthed in the taluk. Without the support of officials in charge of pumping petroleum products, and without the support of an elaborate network, it is difficult to run an operation of this scale. Reportedly, there has not been much headway in the cases registered earlier, as those arrested have come out on bail, and the petroleum products which were stolen, were never retrieved.