Ghaziabad: Ex-staffer arrested for ₹30K fuel theft at petrol pump

The suspects worked at the filling station till about two-and-a-half months ago and quit the job over delayed and unpaid salaries and wanted to teach their employer a lesson

Ghaziabad: A day after three masked men robbed a filling station near Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME) stretch in Masuri, Ghaziabad, of diesel and petrol worth ₹30,000 on Thursday night, police have arrested an alleged prime suspect in the incident, officers said on Saturday.

Police said that they recovered the stolen fuel and also recovered a Triber car with the original number as “6785”, and registered in Hapur. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Police said all the suspects are former employees of the filling station who planned the incident for being aggrieved over pending salary dues. On Saturday, police arrested Sumit Kumar, 28, resident of Hapur, who purportedly admitted to have carried out the crime with the help of Rajat Singh, and Vikas Chauhan. Both are on the run, they added.

The suspects worked at the filling station till about two-and-a-half months ago and quit the job over delayed and unpaid salaries. So, they planned to teach their employer a lesson, the officers added.

The officials said that they got a clue to the suspects with the help of a previous incident on January 22 where a Renault Triber, registered in Hapur district, was used with a tampered registration plate.

“After the robbery of fuel on the late night of Thursday, police questioned several staff members of the filling station to get clues. One of them revealed that three men in a car got the full petrol tank filled up and fled without paying ₹9,000 on January 22. This incident created suspicion. So, we scanned the CCTV footage and saw that a Renault Triber was used during the incident on January 22. Its number plate was clearly visible and had the number ‘8786’ written. But this seemed a fake number that seemed painted and tampered, but numbers ‘7’ and ‘8’ remained in original form,” said an officer attached to the case investigation.

“The numerical digit identifying the district number was also tampered as ’87,’ but we could make out that this was number ’37’ which is of Hapur district. So, we took help from the transport department and finally zeroed on to a Renault Triber car which had numbers ‘7’ and ‘8’ as the second and third digits. When we finally reached out to the owner of the car, he revealed that this was sold to the prime suspect. The suspect was finally arrested,” the officer added.

The police said that the prime suspect and two absconding suspects planned the robbery and brought in plastic cans in their car and fled with fuel around 1.30am on Friday. The car was not clearly visible in CCTV footage.

“During the incident, the suspects also went inside the staff room in order to pull out the DVR (digital video recorder) connected to CCTVs. But they ended up pulling out an automation device instead. When we scanned the CCTVs, the Triber car was not clearly visible. However, we got clues from the tampered registration plate seen in CCTV of January 22, and finally the suspect was arrested. He told us that their pending salaries were not paid, and all three left the job about two-and-half months ago,” said Siddharth Gautam, assistant commissioner of police, Masuri/Muradnagar circle.

Police said that they recovered the stolen fuel and also recovered a Triber car with the original number as “6785”, and registered in Hapur.

“The suspect told us that he changed and tampered with the number plate to avoid detection in CCTVs installed on the expressway and also on National Highway 9, which connects to Hapur. No cash, etc., was taken away. The suspects went inside the staff room to pull out the DVR of CCTVs, and there they ended up in an altercation with a staff. The two absconding suspects will be arrested soon,” said Surendra Nath Tiwary, deputy commissioner of police (rural zone).

Officers said the suspects knew that the filling machines is closed after midnight, and they were familiar with the process to turn them on for taking away fuel.