The Pune police on Thursday arrested two persons and booked two others for selling cooking gas cylinders in the black market during lockdown. The police sent a decoy customer based on a tip-off and seized 46 gas cylinders.
The two arrested men have been identified as Narendra Raghuvirsingh Thakur, 31 and Vijay Jeevan Mudliar, 46, both residents of Dapodi, according to police sub-inspector Amol Bhosale who is the complainant in the case.
“We got information from the seniors to scour the Khadki region for such people. We have arrested them on Thursday and are interrogating them. Currently there is no other agency on our radar,” said PSI Bhosale of Khadki police station who posed as a customer seeking a cylinder.
The two arrested men were selling the cylinders at a hiked rate on the instructions of the owner of Srinath gas agency in Dapodi, identified as Shrikant Vishwasrao Patil, 51, a resident of Bopodi gaothan, and the manager of the agency identified as Hrishikesh Shridhar Bhopatkar, 47, a resident of Aundh. The owner and the manager are the third and fourth accused in the case, said police.
The police found that the two arrested men were sitting in two tempos near the water purification plant on Bhau Patil road in Dapodi. The cylinders, which cost Rs 790, were being sold at Rs 1,200 by the accused. A policeman in civil clothes approached the two as a customer and caught them while trying to sell the cylinder, said police.
{{/usCountry}}The police found that the two arrested men were sitting in two tempos near the water purification plant on Bhau Patil road in Dapodi. The cylinders, which cost Rs 790, were being sold at Rs 1,200 by the accused. A policeman in civil clothes approached the two as a customer and caught them while trying to sell the cylinder, said police.
{{/usCountry}}A case under section 3 and 7 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955 has been registered at Khadki police station against four people. Police inspector (crime) Shafil Pathan of Khadki police station is investigating the case.