Man supplying illegal water tankers sets fire to rival’s office in Gurugram

Sominder Sehrawat, a Dhankot village resident, delivers water tankers to residential areas and construction sites along the Dwarka Expressway

A private contractor who supplied illegal water tankers to residential areas along the Dwarka Expressway was booked for allegedly setting fire to the office of his business rival -- another private water supplier, police officers familiar with the matter said on Monday, adding that the incident was the result of a battle for supremacy in the water tanker business.

Officials believe the water mafia is tampering with the pipeline to cripple supply and force residents to pay exorbitant fees for water tankers and packaged water. (Representational Image)

Sominder Sehrawat, a Dhankot village resident, has been delivering water tankers to residential areas and construction sites along the Dwarka Expressway for many years. He has a tube well on his property and supplies water to at least 50 regions every day. “He has set up his office near the tube well and operates from there,” said Praveen Kumar, station house officer of Rajendra Park police station.

On Monday night, a fire broke out at his office while it was closed, and some labourers were sleeping nearby. “When the fire broke out, labourers slept in the many hutments built behind his office. They extinguished the fire and informed Sehrawat, who arrived and called the police,” Kumar added.

Sehrawat said that when he reviewed the CCTV footage of his office, he was astounded to see his competitor carrying a can, pouring it on his office, and lighting it on fire. “I saw in the video that a car stopped near my office around 10.40pm, and four people got out, poured a flammable substance, and set fire to my office. The culprits are also in the same business as me and were threatening me to give up my business and shut down the water supply,” he said.

A first information report was registered underrelevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at Rajendra Park police station.

Tanker operators operate from private farmlands in the city’s villages, where illegal borewells sucking out groundwater are monitored by musclemen. According to the police, this operation is entirely unlawful.According to police, they will also book the complainant after a preliminary investigation.

In June, the Haryana Space Applications Centre (Harsac) prepared data on 20 sites at 39 locations where pipelines were damaged, causing a supply shortage in several residential areas, including Gurugram’s Dwarka Expressway, over the previous month.

Officials believe the water mafia is tampering with the pipeline to cripple supply and force residents to pay exorbitant fees for water tankers and packaged water.