With the arrest of 23 perpeople and seizure of 56 fuel dispensers across Maharashtra, the Thane police crime sleuths on Wednesday claimed to have blown the lid off a nation-wide racket involving a large-scale siphoning of fuel at petrol pumps using doctored Integrated Circuit (IC) chips for the dispensing units.
The modus operandi by involved in the fuel siphoning racket flourishing at petrol pumps was to fit replace the IC chips with to the fuel dispensing units to ensure that they dispense less fuel than the volume for which the customer pays without altering the meter reading.
Having taken into custody as many as 22 persons involved in the racket, a visiting team of the Thane Police on Tuesday arrested Prashant Nulkar (56), the brain behind the fraud flourishing at scores of petrol pumps, from Hubli in Karnataka.
A former employee of a company manufacturing fuel dispensing units, Nulkar was on Wednesday produced before a Thane court which remanded in police custody till July 15.
“We have so far arrested 23 persons, including Nulkar, in connection with the petrol pilferage racket. We have seized 56 fuel dispensing units fitted with illegal chips. Through these units, those managing the petrol pumps were dispensing less volume of petrol and diesel than paid for by the customers,” Thane’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Abhishek Trimukhe told The Pioneer.
The investigations have revealed that those involved in the racket had replaced the oil marketing company’s Integrated Circuit (IC) with an unauthorised IC fitted the accused in the form of a chip in the dispenser units at the petrol pumps. Because of these chips, there would not be any change in the dispense units’ meter reading but the customer would get less volume of fuel at petrol pumps.
According to the investigations, the fuel dispensing units fitted with doctored chips would release anywhere from 40 ml to 300 ml less in five litres of petrol or diesel purchased from the petrol pump in question.
The fuel pilferage racket came to light after the arrest of one Vivek Harishchandra Shetye (47) of Dombivli (Thane) from Para in Uttar Pradesh in May this year. Nulkar and Shetye allegedly supplied doctored chips to petrol pumps across the country. Shetye’s arrest came after a Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police tipped off the Thane police about his Dombivli-based workshop where he allegedly made unauthorised chips and sold them to petrol pumps in Uttar Pradesh. After that, the police raided Shetye’s workshop, found incriminating evidence and arrested him in UP.
During the investigations that followed, the Thane police raided 96 petrol pumps in 16 districts of Maharashtra. During the raids, the police seized 56 dispensing fitted with doctored chips. The raided petrol pumps included 48 petrol pumps of Indian Oil Corporation ltd, 36 of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ltd, eight of Bharat Petroleum Corporation ltd. and four of Essar.
The arrested persons included two petrol pump owners, six Managers, 12 technicians and three software engineers.
The investigators are looking 14 more persons involved in the racket. These persons have been on the run ever since the arrest of Shetye.
During the raids, the police seized 195 pulsar cards, 22 sensor cards, 71 control cards and 61 keypads which have been sent for testing by the respective companies labs.
Some of the arrested persons are former employees of various big fuel dispensing unit manufacturers like Midco, Gilbarco, Tokheim.
The accused used their expertise with these manufacturers to tamper with the various components of the fuel dispenser units like nozzle, pulsar cards, sensor cards and control cards to cheat thousands of gullible customers.