Delhi Police busts biggest ever ₹54-crore jet fuel racket, stolen ATF sold as turpentine for years

In one of the biggest fuel diversion rackets unearthed in recent years, Delhi Police have seized 72,000 litres of stolen jet fuel worth ₹1.62 crore from a Mundka godown and arrested eight men, including the alleged kingpin who once drove fuel tankers himself.

The syndicate, operational for nearly three years, allegedly siphoned off thousands of litres of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) every day from an HPCL depot in Haryana, repackaging and reselling it illegally as Mineral Turpentine Oil (MTO) in the open market.

The operation was cracked by the Delhi Police Crime Branch’s Inter-State Cell following weeks of surveillance. Acting on a tip-off, a team led by Inspector Mahipal Singh raided the Mundka facility on Sunday, catching the accused mid-operation as they transferred stolen fuel from tankers into barrels destined for illegal resale.

“The accused manipulated GPS tracking, forged dip rods, and used duplicate keys to siphon fuel meant for the Indira Gandhi International Airport,” said DCP (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam. “On average, around 5,000 litres were diverted daily, amounting to an estimated 54 lakh litres stolen since the racket began.”

The alleged mastermind, Gaya Prasad Yadav, 43, formerly a tanker driver, was at the heart of the network. Police said he bought fuel from compromised drivers at ₹30 per litre and resold it as turpentine oil for ₹50 per litre. The buyers included resellers like Rajkumar Chaudhary, 53, who supplied the stolen ATF to industries using it as a substitute in the ink and paint sectors.

The other arrested men include transporter Ashpal Singh Bhullar, three tanker drivers, and two helpers. Investigators also seized three trucks, two pickup vans and a cache of forged equipment used in the operation. Police are now probing deeper links, suspecting a wider interstate network of middlemen and end buyers.

The racket’s ingenious methods — from manipulating tanker delivery logs to bypassing secure depot locks with counterfeit keys — helped it thrive undetected along the busy delivery route from HPCL’s Asoda depot in Bahadurgarh to Delhi airport.

“The godown’s location allowed the tankers to make detours without raising alarms, as they appeared to remain on course to the airport,” a senior officer said.

According to police further arrests are likely as they continue to unravel the full scale of the criminal enterprise.