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Three arrested in Mumbai over 43,000 litres of ‘smuggled’ diesel found in a boat
The accused were given time to produce documents pertaining to the diesel haul but couldn’t claims police.
Mumbai crime branch officials have arrested three members of an alleged diesel smuggling group following the recovery of 43,104 litres of diesel worth Rs 35 lakh from a tugboat at the New Ferry Wharf, Bhaucha Dhakka, Mazgaon. The accused are suspected to have smuggled the diesel from foreign commercial vessels at sea.
Assistant police inspector, Sachin Vaze, in-charge of the crime intelligence unit (CIU) recently received specific intelligence about the movement of some members of a diesel smuggling racket. Acting on the input, Vaze’s team on July 18 visited a jetty at the New Ferry Wharf located at Bhaucha Dhakka, Mazgaon and found a tugboat ‘Barsaatu’ there.
The boat is owned by Hind Offshore Private Limited, having its office at Ballard Estate. Barsaatu is at the New Ferry Wharf Jetty since May 29, 2020 and there were nine crew members on board.
On examining the tug boat in presence of panchas (witnesses) the police found 43,104 litres of diesel worth nearly Rs 35 lakh on the boat. When crime branch officials asked boat’s chief engineer Debashish Vishwas, 48, and master Ismail Mujawar, 59, about the diesel they could not give satisfactory answers or produce any relevant documents. They were asked to produce relevant documents justifying the presence of huge quantities of diesel by July 21, however, they failed.
Preliminary probe revealed that the boat in question wasn’t in operations by the company since the last three years, despite that it was being used for some other purposes, as per an official.
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“Investigators suspect that the accused used the boat to either steal the diesel or illegally procure it from other foreign vessels at sea to further illegally sell it in the black market,” said a crime branch official requesting anonymity.
On July 23, the police arrested superintendent of the boat Rajesh Kute, chief engineer Vishwas and master Mujawar under sections 3, 7, 8 and 9 of Essential Commodities Act and 379 and 120B of Indian Penal Code. They were produced in a court on Friday and remanded in police custody up to July 27.
The police are looking for the directors of the company for questioning.
However, the lawyer of the arrested accused, Ravi Hirani said, “My clients have legally purchased the said diesel and have relevant documents to prove the same. The said diesel has not been procured by stealing, if that was the case then why is there not even a single complaint from any one till date. It is a totally false case against my clients.”
