Fifteen people, including seven Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) drivers, were caught red-handed selling fuel from the fuel tankers at Thakre VDC-3 in Dhading on Tuesday.

Police Inspector Yadav Thapa of Area Police Office in Khanikhola said they were arrested along with seven fuel tankers outside a hotel.The fuel tankers, which had travelled all the way from India after refilling, were supposed to deliver the fuel to the NOC depot in Thankot, Kathmandu.

Police detained the sellers as well as the buyers from the scene. The arrested NOC drivers told police that they were supposed to give half of the profit to the officials at the Thankot depot.

The arrestees were identified as Bishnu Prasad Acharya, Ajaya Urau, Mahesh Urau, Manoj Rajbanshi, Ram Bahadur Magar, Sumesh Bhujel, Nepnarayan Majhi, Sanjaya Yadav, Yam Kumar Bhujel, Arun Bhujel, Bishal Lama, Jeevan Thing, Bikram Acharya, Bishnu Subedi and Gurudev Singh.