43,000 litres of smuggled diesel worth ₹35 lakh seized from Mumbai, 3 held

City crime branch officers on Thursday arrested three members of a gang, after 43,104 litres of smuggled diesel worth ₹35 lakh was found from a tugboat at Mazgaon.

City crime branch officers on Thursday arrested three members of a gang, after 43,104 litres of smuggled diesel worth ₹35 lakh was found from a tugboat at Mazgaon. The officers suspect that the accused may have smuggled the diesel from other foreign commercial vessels in the sea. The accused were produced in a local court on Friday and remanded in police custody up to July 27.

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On July 18, assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, in-charge of the crime intelligence unit (CIU), received intelligence on the movement of some members of a diesel smuggling racket. Acting on the intelligence, Vaze’s team visited a jetty at Bhaucha Dhakka (Ferry Wharf) in Mazgaon.

They found a boat, Barsaatu, at the spot. According to the police, the boat is owned by Hind Offshore Private Limited, which has an office at Ballard Estate. Barsaatu has been sailing at Ferry Wharf since May 29, and there were nine crew members on board.

On examining the tugboat in the presence of the panchas (witnesses) the police found the allegedly smuggled diesel. When crime branch officers asked the boat’s chief engineer Debashish Vishwas, 48, and sailing master Ismail Mujawar, 59, about the ferrying diesel in such large quantity, they could neither produce any documents, nor were able to provide satisfactory answers on it. The officers then asked the duo to produce the relevant documents by July 21 but they failed to do so.

A preliminary probe revealed that the boat was not used for any operations by the company from the past three years.

“Investigators suspects that using the boat, the accused either stole diesel or illegally procured it from other foreign vessels in the sea to sell it in the black market,” said a crime branch officer.

After the probe, the police arrested the boat’s superintendent Rajesh Kute, Vishwas and Mujawar under the relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The police are looking to question the directors of the company.

Ravi Hirani, the accused’s counsel, said, “My clients have purchased the seized diesel legally and have documents to prove the purchase. The diesel has not been stolen. Had that been the case, then why is there not a single complaint against my clients till date. This is a totally false case against my clients.”