A major explosion in a tunnel dug up by oil thieves shook a residential area in Dwarka on late Tuesday night.
Although, no one was injured in the blast in the Suraj Vihar area near Dwarka Mod, the blast indicates how the police and the Indian Oil Corporation slept while the oil thieves dug up a 155 feet long and 2.5 feet wide tunnel, which was being used to pilfer petrol by four men.
Senior police officers of the Dwarka district said one of the men has been arrested. The arrested man Zubair revealed that he along with four others sublet two rented properties.
The incident could have turned out to be massive tragedy since the tunnel, filled with leaking oil pipes was covered with inflammable substances.
According to the police, the blast took place at around 1:30 am in the Suraj Vihar area.
On hearing the explosion, the locals rushed and found a tunnel.
When the police team reached the spot, they found four men, since the past five months, had taken the land on rent to use to repair cars in the area.
On the pretext of repairing cars, the accused dug up a 155 feet long tunnel. They had cut the pipes of the Indian Oil Corporation and connected them to separate pipes which were kept in a storage tank.
A senior officer on Wednesday said, “The accused were very clever. They used to pilfer 1500 liter of petrol from the Indian Oil pipes every day and had been doing so for the past two months. To avoid getting caught by the local police, they had built up a room and kept old, torn out sofas and big stones as a cover on them,”
The incident highlights how the beat staff was not aware about the theft of petrol taking place on a large scale in the posh area of Dwarka.
The officer added that while Jubair, a resident of Dariyaganj has been arrested and is under police custody, they are trying to establish how the oil pilferage was taking place in the area under the nose of the Delhi Police and senior Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials, Police said.