Mumbai Crime: Former gas agency employee held for stealing LPG cylinders in Nerul

The police team with the recovered cylinders

Nerul cops have arrested a man for stealing LPG gas cylinders from gas agencies. The accused, who previously worked in a gas agency, used to steal the cylinders at night. Cops have recovered 115 cylinders from his house and a delivery van. Investigations are underway to find out whether he has any accomplices in the offence.

On July 4, 2021, a cylinder delivery tempo was stolen from Sector 11, Juinagar. According to the complaint, the van had 28 full and eight empty cylinders. There were two more offences of the same nature registered at the police station as well.

"We had deployed a dedicated team to investigate the matter as there were two complaints before this incident. We started checking the CCTV footage of the gas agency from where it was stolen and did a technical analysis of the same. During this, we traced a suspect to Takka Village, Panvel. When cops picked him up for investigation, he confessed to stealing the tempo with the cylinders," said DCP (zone 1), Suresh Mengde.

The suspect was identified as Shreeram Bishnoi, hailing from Rajasthan. Bishnoi had worked previously in a gas agency and knew that many of the agencies keep the LPG-filled cylinders outside their offices without security. "He did recce of the spots before stealing, and we have recovered 115 cylinders out of which, 93 are domestic and 22 are commercial cylinders. According to primary information, he sold the cylinders in the slums," said senior inspector Shyam Shinde of Nerul police station.

The arrest of Bishnoi has helped Nerul police in solving three cases registered in their own police station, and one at APMC police station.