District Collector Thakur Ram Singh has directed registering of FIR against five persons who were involved in black-marketing of lPG gas cylinders in the city.
The accused used to refill the commercial gas cylinders with domestic ones and then sold them at a lower price, Assistant Food Officer (AFO) Sanjay Dubey informed here on Thursday.
According to the AFO, the District Collector has directed to register FIR against five persons including the prime accused Abhishek Gulati and Vishal Gulati. They had allegedly applied the seal of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on the cylinders of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation ltd (HPCl), Bharat Petroleum Corporation ltd (BPCl) which is violation of liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000. They shall be booked under the Section 3/7 of Essential Commodity Act 1955, he said.
Notably, the District Office of the Food Department on May 17 had seized 23 lPG cylinders including 9 empty ones of HPCl BPCl and IOC from a vehicle in Pechpadhi Naka locality. All the cylinders had seal of IOC on them, but originally they belonged to other companies.
later on, the Food Department officials raided New Dilbahar Hotel and seized four commercial cylinders that Gulati and his accomplices had supplied. The hotel owner told officers that he had purchased cylinders for Rs1,300 which are being sold for Rs1,630 by the companies in market. It was then known that gas from domestic cylinders was being filled in the commercial cylinders and then sold in the black market.
The AFO informed that lPG from four domestic cylinders (costing about Rs1,600) are filled in three empty commercial cylinders (costing about Rs3,900) and then sold in the black market.