Parmesh S Jain
Legal Metrology Inspection Squad on Tuesday busted a scam and caught fuel tankers stealing petrol in secret compartments while transporting to fuel stations .
The scam came to light when a team of Legal metrology Inspection Squad led by Mohammed Asif,based on a tip off intercepted a tanker near HPCL terminal,Devanagundi near Hoskote and inspected the tank to find a secret compartment inside the fuel tank.
The secret compartment having a capacity of 48 to 50 liters of petrol which was filled as soon along with the tank and the accused would empty the secret tank after delivery using allen key to open the chamber.
Using the modus operandi as many as 50 liters of petrol is stolen for every trip and sold it to their customers to make extra money.
Based on the confession the truck driver Praveen Kumar,25,along with his assistant Shivakumar have been handed over to the jurisdictional Anugondahalli police for further investigations.
Mohammed Asif has also filed a complaint against the accused charging truck owner Shruthi and the contractor Shivaraju under various sections of Petroleum and Essential Commodities act.
Further investigations revealed that there are over 20 fuel tankers operating across the state with the secret chambers and stealing fuel and a police along with the legal metrology team are tracking down the trucks.
The accused tanker driver Shivakumar confessed that he is operating the truck since January 2021 sometimes taking two trips per day, a police officer, said .
The police are also looking out for the fabricator who was making this secret chambers in the tankers.
