Delhi police arrest duo accused of 3 decades of tapping, siphoning oil pipelines

Police said they discovered the crime in a probe that revealed a concealed tunnel and illegal valve assembly at a rented house

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has arrested two proclaimed offenders who allegedly built a three-decade-long criminal career on “systematically tapping and draining oil pipelines across multiple states,” senior officers aware of the matter said on Thursday.

Both were carrying a reward of ₹25,000 each and had been on the run since June, said police.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Harsh Indora identified the accused as Swaran Singh, 55, and his brother-in-law Dharmender Singh, 50. They were carrying a reward of ₹25,000 each and had been on the run since June.

“To build cover, Swaran Singh would rent a house or shop near a pipeline and start a small business, such as mineral water vending, for instance, allowing frequent movement, storage and night-time activity,” Indora said.

From inside these rented premises, police said, he would dig tunnels in phases to avoid noise or vibration detection. Once he reached the buried pipeline, he fitted a customised valve that diverted fuel into concealed tanks, from where it was transported in hired pick-ups or distributed to buyers.

Police said they discovered the crime in a probe that revealed a concealed tunnel and illegal valve assembly at a rented house in Jaipur’s Dahmi Kalan area, Rajasthan, and a case was registered there. They were tracked over three months across several states and apprehended near the Vikaspuri drain on Wednesday following technical surveillance and manual intelligence.

Indora said that Swaran Singhbegan stealing fuel in 1992, when he was working as a tanker driver for Bharat Petroleum, transporting fuel to the Delhi airport. Investigators said he would siphon off small quantities of fuel from tankers and sell it in the open market. He was subsequently held for theft and jailed.

During incarceration in jail, Singh developed contacts and gained an insight into the black market for stolen fuel, police said.

“When he returned to driving long-haul tankers, he observed that transporters across states willingly purchased fuel at discounted rates. He soon began sourcing low-cost oil from workers at the Assam Oil Corporation but was caught again,” Indora said.

It was after his second jail term that Singh shifted from petty pilferage to tapping pipelines. Police said Singh surveyed pipeline routes of HPCL and other oil companies, and identified isolated pockets where he could operate without attracting suspicion.

The operations were always carried out at night, and the tapping points were camouflaged under tiles, soil or makeshift flooring, officers said.

Police said Singh replicated this model repeatedly starting 2011-12 in Gurugram and Jaipur. He operated in Paschim Vihar in 2014 and multiple locations across Punjab. “He chose Jaipur frequently because of easy access to transporters and industrial buyers,” Indora said.

The second accused, Dharmender, gradually joined him, using his experience as a driver to transport stolen fuel and help select rental premises near vulnerable pipeline stretches, police said.

Both accused are wanted in multiple cases across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab, including earlier proclamations in Kurukshetra and Bathinda.