Fuel adulteration racket busted at Gurugram farmhouse

The one-acre farmhouse is owned by a resident of Brijwasan, Delhi but he had leased it to another person for 18 months

The Gurugram police on Monday booked unidentified suspects for allegedly running an illegal fuel station at a farmhouse along the Dwarka Expressway in Mohammadpur Jharsa. The fuel station was storing and adulterating diesel and distributing it at various places, said police officers.

The police submitted a written complaint at Sector-37 police station after sealing the farmhouse on December 1.

Investigators said a joint raid by the chief minister’s flying squad and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN) was conducted at the farmhouse on December 1 after they received information about energy theft, but instead they uncovered a fuel adulteration racket.

A senior police officer said the squad and a DHBVN team led by a junior engineer checked the electricity metre outside the premises and confirmed that energy theft was taking place.

“The officials were preparing the documents to impose a fine when a member of the squad peeked through the main gate and spotted four oil tankers parked on the premises. Nothing was visible from the outside as there was a seven-feet-high peripheral wall,” the officer said.

“Authorities ordered the security guard to open the gates and the team went inside to find a fully functional fuel station for refilling the tankers,” he said.

Two of the tankers were filled with 10,500 litres of diesel, said officials.

“Food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department authorities were called to the spot, who then collected diesel samples and sent them for quality check in a laboratory at Rewari and the farmhouse was sealed. The reports arrived last week and the samples failed the quality check,” said the officer.

The police submitted a written complaint at Sector-37 police station after sealing the farmhouse on December 1.

The one-acre farmhouse is owned by a resident of Brijwasan, Delhi but he had leased it to another person for 18 months.

Gurugram district food and supply controller Pradeep Hooda submitted another complaint on Monday on the basis of which a First Information Report was registered against the suspects under section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Essential Commodities Act at Sector-37 police station, said police.

Inspector Sunita Devi, station house officer of Sector 37 police station, said preliminary suspicion is that a diesel adulteration racket was operating at the spot. “We will inspect the premises after opening the seal. We will also serve a notice to the person who took the farmhouse on lease, to join the investigation, to ascertain who was running the station,” she said.