VADODARA, June 23: The Vadodara district police on Tuesday arrested Vinay Komalsingh Yadav, the main accused in crude oil theft from ONGC pipelines in Bharuch and Vadodara districts. Yadav, the ring leader in crude oil theft, had been eluding the police net for the past several months.District Superintendent of Police (rural) Shamsher Singh said Yadav and his gang members, in connivance with two ONGC employees, had stolen 16 tankers of crude oil by breaking the oil pipeline near Palej early this year. While ONGC employees Digvijay Fateh Singh Shekhawat, a supervisor and Umeshbhai Kotley, a security guard, had been arrested soon after the incident, Yadav and his gang members had been absconding. He had left Vadodara and shifted to his native place in Kanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, Singh said.Singh said the police had been regularly following his movements and nabbed him as soon as he reached here on Tuesday from Kanpur.Yadav was also involved in crude oil theft from Padra in 1996 and Bharuch in 1997. They used to supply crude oil to tile manufacturing companies in other parts of the country, particularly, western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.With Yadav's arrest, police hope to arrest his accomplices soon. Yadav has been booked under Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act.
