Police seize 610 LPG cylinders stored illegally in Mundka godown

Delhi Police seized 610 illegal LPG cylinders in Mundka and arrested distributors for black marketing, with further arrests made in Bawana and Shahdara.

Delhi Police have busted an illegal LPG storage and blackmarketing operation in west Delhi’s Mundka, recovering 610 cylinders from a godown and booking the distributor under the Essential Commodities Act, officers said on Monday.

Photo for representation (HT)

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said the crime branch, under ACP Pankaj Arora, carried out the raid on Sunday after receiving inputs about illegal storage and sale of LPG cylinders at a godown operating as Guruji Indane Gas Service.

Officers found commercial cylinders of multiple companies — Indane, Bharat Gas and HP — stored together inside the premises.

“While the firm is an authorised distributor of Indane, it had stored cylinders of other companies in bulk and was selling them on the black market,” an officer said.

Police recovered 610 cylinders in total — 423 Indane, 92 Bharat Gas and 95 HP.

Yadav said investigators also found major discrepancies in stock records. “As per communication from Indian Oil Corporation, the distributor’s stock of Indane cylinders was expected to be nil on March 10. There were clear irregularities in stock management, and the cylinders were being hoarded and sold at inflated prices,” he said.

In a separate case at Bawana Chowk in outer Delhi, police arrested two men — Amar Jeet (37) and Lokesh Kumar Yadav (37) — for illegal LPG refilling and blackmarketing.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer north) Hareshwar Swami said police received information that shopkeepers were illegally decanting LPG from commercial and domestic cylinders. On Saturday, the two accused were arrested with two cylinders, two pipes and two small cylinders.

In Shahdara, police also arrested a 55-year-old man, Ram Vilas Sharma, and recovered nine cylinders, two gas-filling machines and a weighing machine.

Police said Sharma was found illegally transferring LPG from domestic cylinders into smaller cylinders during a routine check. He was apprehended on the spot and identified as a resident of New Usmanpur.

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