Aurangabad, Feb 19:
The Aurangabad rural police have busted an inter-state gang of 12 members stealing petrol and diesel from various petrol pumps on Thursday night. The police have seized articles amounting Rs 98,49,420 including three trucks, handpump used for fuel theft, 45 cans filled with diesel and 8 mobile phones. The kingpin of the gang Rama Panya Pawar (Terkhed, Osmanabad), Dhanaji Mahadev Pol, Rama Subrao Kale (30), Ganpat alias Gulbya Ganpu Kale (19), Dashrath Laxman Kale (19), Uddhav Bapu Shinde (21), Ganesh Kalu Pawar (23), Laxman Panya Pawar (40), Vikas Machindra Kale (21), Rajendra Shaji Kale (19), Nitin Bapu Pawar, Kiran Arjun Kale (All residents of Laxmanpedhdhi, Terkhed, Washi, Osmanabad) and customers Vinod Nanasaheb Barkul (27) and Rohit Dilip More (29, Yermala) have been arrested.
Superintendent of police, Mokshada Patil, told about the action that diesel worth Rs 4 lakh was stolen from Shree Petrol Pump at Chitegaon on Dhule – Solapur national highway on February 16. Pump owner, Pradeep Rathod, lodged a complaint in this regard at the Chikalthana police station, next day. An information was received that the diesel was stolen by Rama Panya Pawar with his accomplices. Local crime branch PI Bhagwat Phunde, PSI Sandeep Solanke, Ganesh Raut, Syed Ziya, Vasant Latpate, Shrimant Bhalerao, Dhiraj Jadhav, Vikram Deshmukh, Namdev Shirsath, Balu Pathrikar, Kiran Gore, Pramod Khandebharad, Sanjay Deore, Shaikh Nadeem, Walmik Nikam, Sanjay Bhosale, Rahul Pagare, Narendra Khandare, Yogesh Tarmale, Dnyaneshwar Mete, Babasaheb Nawale, Jeevan Gholap laid a trap and arrested the gang members.
SP, Mokshada Patil said, Rama Panya Pawar is the notorious goon on the police record and around 27 cases have been registered against him. The gang has stolen petrol and diesel from various petrol pumps at Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra. As the arrested are involved in an organized crime, cases can be registered under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The accused used to sell the sell the diesel to the sand truck owners in half of the prices. The police have arrested two customers waiting at Zalta Phata to purchase the diesel from them, Patil mentioned.