The Ainthapali police in Sambalpur district on Sunday arrested four persons on charges of stealing a tanker and selling 20,000 litres of diesel contained in it on January 15. The police also seized six mobile phones, hard cash of Rs40,000 and 20,000 litres of diesel from their possession. The arrested were identified as Kishore Modi (55), his son Abinash(28), Satyanarayana Beriha(35) and Bantu alias Amit Agrawal(32). Kishore is an owner of a petrol pump in the Remed area under the Ainthapali police limits.
According to a complaint lodged by tanker owner Budhu Yadav of Bishrampur in Surajpur district of Chhatisgarh, the tanker laden with 20,000 litres of diesel was on its way from Paradip to Bishrampur when the miscreants stole it. During investigation, police found Kishore Modi and his son took help of Satyanarayan and Bantu to sell the diesel and the latter duo took help of three others for selling the diesel. Police were yet to arrest three others and trace the driver and cleaner of the vehicle. “Three associates of Satya Narayan Beriha and Bantu are yet to be arrested. However, we have already located the tanker. The tanker is near Visakhapatnam now,” said ASP SK Panigrahi, adding that a proposal has been given to concerned authority to cancel the licence of Kishore’s petrol pump.