Assam police on Saturday busted an oil theft racket and seized 14,000 litres of stolen condensate oil in Dibrugarh district.

Four persons were arrested in connection to the case.

Acting on information from Oil India Limited (OIL)’s security team, a raid was conducted in Tinsukia town which led to the recovery of 6,000 litres of stolen condensate oil from two vehicles, a dump truck and a winger passenger vehicle.

The oil which was pilfered from OIL pipelines was kept in containers of 200 litres each.

Upon interrogation, the drivers of the two vehicles revealed that the stolen oil was supposed to be taken to RD Dhaba which is located beside the NH-37 in the Chabua area of the district, police said.

“We also came to know that the adulteration of oil was being carried out from a barricaded godown located behind the Dhaba. The gang with the connivance of the tanker drivers use to take out a certain amount of oil (diesel or petrol) from the tankers and replace it with cheap condensate oil. The tankers transport oil from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plant in Digboi to various locations of the Northeast,” said Tinsukia DSP Hiranya Kumar Borah.

Later, the Dhaba and the godown were also raided after which 8,000 litres of oil was recovered which were stolen from the oil tankers.

However, the owner of the Dhaba identified as Rubul Dhuliya, who is the kingpin of the racket is absconding, the DSP further said.