In a major breakthrough, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested an oil mafia kingpin from near Belgachia at Salkia in Howrah on Friday morning.
According to a senior officer of the CID, the accused - Sangam Jaiswal — was involved in several cases of stealing oil from tankers.
CID had received a complaint that a racket is operating in the state, members of which threaten drivers of oil tankers and rob oil from them midway from the depot to a refilling station.
They mix chemicals to the oil to increase its quantity and sell it at a cheaper prices compared to that of the market rate. The racket has almost set up a parallel business and the owners of refilling stations have been incurring heavy losses due to theft.
With the arrest of the kingpin of the racket, who is 37-year-old, the investigating officers feel that they can uproot the entire racket by arresting all its members. Sangam has been remanded to the custody of the CID and the investigating officers will be interrogating him to get to know about the whereabouts of the other members of the racket.
The kingpin is a resident of Behala in South Kolkata and had taken shelter in a hideout at Salkia in Howrah. Acting on a tip-off, officers of the Special Operation Group of CID conducted a raid and arrested the accused.
He was involved in a similar case of Nandakumar in East Midnapore and some of his aides are still believed to be functioning in the area.
Police have come to know that there are some people in localities near oil depots who work hand in glove with them to make fast money. With their help, the accused used to continue looting the drivers of oil tankers which affected the entire business.