The Malkipuram police on Thursday arrested a gang of four persons while they were stealing crude oil from a pipeline belonging to the Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) near the Toorpupalem well under the Malkipuram police limits in the East Godavari district.
Amalapuram DSP Sk. Masum Basha said, “The gang has been caught while stealing the crude oil from the ONGC pipeline through the quality checkpoint near the Toorpupalem well in the early hours of Thursday.”
The ONGC collects the crude oil through the quality checkpoint for preliminary investigation before it reaches the processing unit.
According to Malkipuram sub-inspector M. Nagaraju, the four have been identified as Pydi Ravi Kumar of Rajole and J. Durga Prasad, J. Nagaraju and I. Nagababu of the Allavaram area in Konaseema.
170 litres seized
Mr. Masum Basha said that 170 litres of crude oil, 15 plastic tins and a car had been seized from the gang, which reportedly collected the crude oil throughout the night.
The police have registered cases against the four on the charges of public property damage and under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act and the Petroleum & Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, 1962.
The police on Thursday produced the gang before the local court.
