Ahmedabad, May 10: Ahmedabad Police crime branch sleuths have arrested Ramesh Birbal Yadav, the alleged mastermind of a gang of thieves which used to steal crude oil from Indian Oil pipelines by drilling holes in them.
Yadav, police said, used to run a gang of 10 to 12 thieves and was doing inter-state crimes. In the last three years, he carried out thefts of Indian Oil crude four times in Rajasthan, twice in UP and five times in other states
The crude oil stolen was worth nearly Rs 7 crore, which add up to 92 tankers, said A K sharma, Joint CP, Ahmedabad crime branch.
A resident of Mainpuri district of UP, Yadav had worked as a securityguard at Maheej village in Kheda district for an ONGC oil well from 1997 till 2000. He was arrested in 2000 in Gandhinagar on charge of stealing crude.
After release from jail, Yadav set up a gang with his villagers and carried out thefts in Rajasthan, UP and Gujarat.
Sharma said, the gang was adept at drilling holes in pipelines, and used to fill up a tanker within less than 25 minutes. Rajasthan and UP police have been informed.
