Delhi Police bust racket of illegal diversion of aviation turbine fuel

Delhi Police busted a racket that was siphoning off aviation turbine fuel from tankers, that were meant for the international airport and was involved in selling those in the open market as mineral turpentine oil, that caused a monthly loss of ₹1.62 crores to the national exchequer. 

A senior police office said, the illegal operation had been running for at least three years. Following a tip-off on Sunday (June 22, 2025), police arrested the six accused who siphoned off at least 5,000 liters of fuel daily.

Police said, the accused have been identified as Gaya Prasad Yadav, 43, who was the godown’s owner and a former tanker driver. He purchased the fuel at ₹30 a litre and sold the same at ₹50 a litre.

Rajkumar Chaudhary, 53, had been purchasing the same. Ashpal Singh Bhullar, 53, owned eight trucks. Ram Bharose Yadav, 44, Anjay Roy, 41, and Subodh Kumar Yadav, 32 — were working as truck drivers who were paid ₹1,500 a trip.

DCP (crime) Aditya Gautam said, “the ATF was originally dispatched from HPCL’s Asoda Depot in Bahadurgarh for delivery to IGI Airport, however, the tanker drivers, in connivance with the transporter and godown owner managed to manipulate the GPS tracking data and diverted the tankers to a concealed location in Mundka.”

Duplicate key used

The security locks on the tankers that were meant to be opened only at the designated airport depot were then bypassed using a duplicate master key. Police also found that forged dip rods were ysed to fake proper delivery readings.

Investigation revealed that the siphoned duel was transferred into barrels and sold as Mineral Turpentine Oil. The oil tankers carried at least 24,000 liters of ATF each were seized from the spot. 

Along with the tankers, police also recovered two pickup trucks that were meant to transport stolen fuel, ₹1.05 lakhs cash and six dip rods. Police also found siphoning equipment, nine empty drums and duplicate master keys. 

Police have handed over the seized ATF and vehicles to the oil company after due documentation.