In a raid in the Maliyasan village on the eastern outskirts of Rajkot, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) seized 1.54 lakh litres of adulterated petroleum, which was sold as biodiesel, officials said on Saturday. Two men were arrested following the raid which took place on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Bharat Basiya raided a compound adjacent to a petrol pump in the village on National Highway-27 and seized more than 1.54 lakh litres of “inflammable petroleum product” worth Rs 1.08 crores, as per the details revealed.
Police said the adulterated product was stored in six tanks without any authorisation from the government.
Officials added the product seized was “a chemical decanted from base mineral oil after adding an industry-grade solvent into base oil to achieve density at par with automobile-grade diesel’. “The accused were selling this petroleum product as biodiesel meant for vehicles,” Parthtrajsinh Gohil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told The Indian Express.
The Crime Branch has registered a case against seven persons, and arrested two of them. The accused have been booked under IPC sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 120B (criminal conspiracy) 114 (abetter present when offence is committed) as well as under the Explosives Act for possessing and selling explosive substance without licence and under the Essential Commodities Act.
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The two accused who have been arrested have been identified as Dipesh Mehta and Rajesh Chavda, both residents of Rajkot. Police said while Mehta was operating the complex from the compound, Chavda was a tanker driver. The five other accused have been identified as Bharat Ramani, Narayan Khakhkhar, Hitesh Dobariya, Ashish Dangar and one man from Porbandar who had placed an order for the petroleum. Ramani and Khakhkhar, both residents of Rajkot, are owners of the compound while Dobariya used to look after operations. Dangar is the owner of the tanker.
“Ramani owns a petrol pump adjacent to the compound out of which this business sells adulterated inflammable petroleum products as biodiesel. Ramani had faced action by the district supply officer of Rajkot in a similar offence in 2021,” Jadeja further said.
“Prima facie, the accused had been running this racket for the past four months,” he added.