4 held for stealing diesel meant for BMTC, KSRTC depots

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has arrested four people who were stealing diesel meant for BMTC and KSRTC depots.

The police seized 60,000 litres of diesel from three tankers.

According to the police, the suspects - Venkatanadaiah (30), Gururaj (37), Mallesh (35) and Govindaraju (41) - would steal 50 litres of diesel from each tanker and store it in a yard.

The police are looking out for the prime suspects Manjunath and Imran, both natives of Hoskote.

Of the four arrested, three are tanker drivers. They used to load the tanker at the oil marketing terminal at Devanagonthi near Hoskote from where they are supposed to distribute the fuel to bus depots and various agencies in the city.

However, they would instead stop at a gowdon near Krishnarajapuram and pump out 50 litres from each tanker by using duplicate keys. Later, they would sell the stolen fuel.

The suspects had been engaged in the act for the past four months.

When depot managers complained about the shortage in supply, the suspects told them fuel was lost due to spillage during transportation.

Based on a tip-off, the police started verifying the GPS and VMS (vendor management system) installed on these tankers and found out that the drivers used to drive to KR Puram before reaching their destinations.

The police are questioning the suspects to ascertain the scale of the operation.