Suryapet:Suryapet town police on Tuesday arrested three persons of a gang that was stealing diesel from vehicles parked beside the National Highway No. 65 using special machines.
The arrested persons were Lekkela Purnaiah (40) from Gangavaram village, Kunishetti Mushalaiah(50) from Gutlapally of Prakasam district and Banavath Krishna Naik(42) from Arragunta of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh.
Superintendent of Police S Rajendra Prasad said the gang stole 1500 litres of diesel from five lorries in the limits of Suryapet-I and II town police stations in the last 20 days. The gang was earlier jailed for various offences and after being released, had turned to stealing diesel from vehicles parked on the roadside.
The modus operandi of the gang was that they would come with a lorry and park it beside the parked vehicle. Using a motor and pipe, they would shift the diesel from the parked vehicle to the diesel tank of their lorry.