Thane police bust petrol pump racket assisted by hi-technology
Mrutyunjay Bose, DH News Service, Mumbai, Jul 13 2017, 2:19 IST
Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh addressing a press conference on the petrol pump scam.
In a major crackdown lasting for over a month, the Thane Police busted an inter-state racket with the arrest of 23 people who were involved in changing electronic chips inside petrol and diesel pumps to dispense less oil than that shown on digital meters.
One of the key accused, Prashant Nulkar, the mastermind of the racket, was arrested from Hubballi in Karnataka and brought to Thane.
The scam also has international ramifications as such integrated circuits (IC) had also made way to countries abroad.
The loss that the consumers would have suffered collectively would run into several crores as the scam has been running since some time.
According to investigations carried out so far, the racket involved replacing the oil marketing company’s Integrated Circuit (IC) with an unauthorized IC made by the accused and implanting them in the dispenser unit of the petrol pumps.
“It was a big racket with which they could dispense less petrol or diesel whereas the reading remains the same as asked for by the customer,” Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh told reporters on Wednesday at a news conference.
The suspects have procured such ICs from China and after re-programming them, sold them to petrol pumps in Maharashtra and other states in India, besides petrol outlets in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, among other countries.
Investigations also showed that at least four to 30%less petrol/diesel per litre was actually dispensed without altering the metre reading.
The Thane Police and Crime Branch-CID started the probe after a tip-off from the Uttar Pradesh police who had arrested one of the kingpins of the racket in May, Vivek Harishchandra Shetye, a resident of Dombivli.
One of the key accused, Prashant Nulkar, the mastermind of the racket, was arrested from Hubballi in Karnataka and brought to Thane.
The scam also has international ramifications as such integrated circuits (IC) had also made way to countries abroad.
The loss that the consumers would have suffered collectively would run into several crores as the scam has been running since some time.
According to investigations carried out so far, the racket involved replacing the oil marketing company’s Integrated Circuit (IC) with an unauthorized IC made by the accused and implanting them in the dispenser unit of the petrol pumps.
“It was a big racket with which they could dispense less petrol or diesel whereas the reading remains the same as asked for by the customer,” Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh told reporters on Wednesday at a news conference.
The suspects have procured such ICs from China and after re-programming them, sold them to petrol pumps in Maharashtra and other states in India, besides petrol outlets in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, among other countries.
Investigations also showed that at least four to 30%less petrol/diesel per litre was actually dispensed without altering the metre reading.
The Thane Police and Crime Branch-CID started the probe after a tip-off from the Uttar Pradesh police who had arrested one of the kingpins of the racket in May, Vivek Harishchandra Shetye, a resident of Dombivli.
