Daijiworld News Network - Mangalore (GA) - pics - Dayanand Kukkaje

Mangalore, Nov 28: A special police team led by Western Range IGP H N Satyanarayan Rao achieved a major breakthrough in cracking fuel adulteration network with the arrest of 25 persons on Monday November 27 night.  The police have also seized 4 tankers and huge amount of fuel.  The total value of the seized fuel and vehicles is said to be more than Rs 40 lac.

The police had the clue that adulterated petrol, diesel and bitumen were in use in the district for quite sometime now.  It was only a couple of months ago that a few persons were arresting while stealing bitumen from MRPL premises.  It has been an open secret for long that a network of adulterated fuel is running smoothly in the Mulki, Suratkal and Panambur limits.  The gang involved in the same have pact with the tanker drivers who allow them to take fuel from their tankers and replace that with inferior quality fuel.

Having tried to crack this network for long, the IGP formed a special team comprising most of the police personnel from Udupi and Karwar districts.  This might have been mainly to avoid any leakage of information regarding the raids.  The team raided several place simultaneously giving little time to the accused to escape or pass message to each others.

The police said to have arrested 25 persons in this regard.  Since the raids were carried out in the night, the full details about the raid and the exact value of the seized goods including the fuel is yet to be determined.