New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS): An inter-state gang involved in large-scale theft of aviation oil from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) pipelines was busted by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch, police said on Sunday.

Six persons identified as Sanjay Dhawan, Mukesh Kumar, Samay Pal, Avlesh, Himanshu and Sanjay have been arrested.

A tanker used for transportation of stolen aviation oil from IOCL pipelines, 1,100 litres of aviation oil, instruments used for making a hole in IOCL pipelines, a car used in the crime, Rs 60,000 cash, a generator and an oil pipe were recovered from their possession.

After many complaints about a gang committing theft of petrol, diesel, aviation oil from the supply pipelines of the IOC in the Delhi-NCR area, the Crime Branch mounted active surveillance to check the crime.

On September 5, acting on a tip-off, that members of the gang were coming in the Nihal Vihar area to sell the stolen fuel in a tanker and a car, police laid a trap and arrested the gang members.

According to police, gang members Samay Singh and Mukesh Kumar had good knowledge of the locations of IOC supply pipelines. They were committing this crime since last more than one and a half years.

First of all, they choose the area where a tanker could easily reach the pipeline, preferably in a field of fully-grown crops, to conceal themselves from passing public as well as IOC security.

The gang always performed their operations at night, with Avlesh and Himanshu digging to the pipeline, while two members of the gang were deployed to keep watch for any person or vehicle coming toward them.

After digging down to the pipeline, they fitted a valve on it with the help of a clamp, punctured the pipeline with the help of a specially-made hand run drill machine through the valve, fitted a pipe on the valve and put its other end in the tanker. On opening or releasing the valve, oil flowed into the tanker through the present pressure in the pipeline. After filling the tanker, they closed the valve, left it there, covered up the hole and left the place.

"All the work related to digging and extracting the oil was done at midnight. They used to sell the oil at various places in Delhi to the persons who further sold it in retail illegally to various users," said DCP Crime, Bhisham Singh.