SAMBALPUR: In a major breakthrough, police on Tuesday arrested six persons for allegedly stealing huge quantity of diesel from the pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) near Kusumdihi village in Katarbaga.
The arrested persons were identified as Dusmanta Nayak (33), Sipun Behera (21), Malaya Karna (22), all from Angul district, Binaya Nag (38), Deepak Kumar Goel (38) and Subash Agrawal (68) of Sambalpur. Police seized a tanker laden with stolen diesel, two empty oil tankers besides a car, few tools and mobile phones from their possession.
The accused are part of an inter-State gang involved in diesel theft from IOCL pipelines. Earlier on January 20, police had arrested four persons in this connection. Police said members of the gang are habitual offenders from Uttar Pradesh and Odisha who were committing diesel theft in Angul, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts. They sold the stolen diesel to contractors and petrol pumps in Khuntuni, Talcher and Sambalpur at half the market price.
On January 20, the gang had committed theft of 18,000 litre diesel from the pipeline near Kusumdihi village. While four members of the gang were arrested and a stolen diesel tanker seized from their possession, six others had managed to flee.
The six accused will be produced in court on Wednesday. Police said a manhunt has been launched to nab seven other members of the gang and two persons who are receiver of the stolen diesel. On April 1, police had arrested one of the prime accused Sonu Kumar Jena (32) for his involvement in theft of 38,000 litre diesel from two tankers near Khajurijharan in Rairakhol.
During investigation, it was found that Sonu and Dusmanta were booked in 23 diesel theft cases in Dhenkanal, Jharsuguda, Khurda, Cuttack, Bargarh, Sambalpur and Angul. Dusmanta was booked in 10 other cases under different sections of the IPC including the Arms Act.