Acting on a tip-off, the police team raided an open space behind Manoj Dhaba in Panvel taluka’s Poyanje village at around 1.40 am on 29 September and caught four people red-handed when they pulled six empty commercial cylinders from a tanker. I was stealing LPG. ‘Jugaad’ machines after tampering with the valve of the sealed tanker.
Those arrested are the tanker drivers Somraj Bishnoi (23), Mangilal Bishnoi (19), Subhash Punia (24), all hailing from Rajasthan and Jalaluddin Khan (29) from UP.
The tanker drivers were tasked to transport 17,610 kg LPG tankers from BPCL at Uran to Bharat Forge Company in Baramati when they had stopped behind a dhaba in Poyanje and stole the LPG by manipulating the weight. The quantity of LPG in the tanker was informed by Ravindra Daundkar, senior inspector of Panvel taluka police station.
Daundkar said, “The four accused, in police custody till October 4, disclosed the names of their two associates Manzoor Ansari (21) and Sonu Ansari (19), both drivers, who were arrested on October 2 by laying a trap. Both were arrested on October 2. He has been sent to police custody till October.
We have seized two LPG tankers, a Bolero jeep, a bike, two ‘Jugaad’ machines, 41 empty commercial cylinders, nozzle pipes and the regulator used to transfer LPG from the tankers to the cylinders. With the jugaad machines, they could fill six cylinders at a time.
The total seizure is worth Rs 59.14 lakh. The accused have been booked under IPC sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible substance) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) along with the Essential Commodities Act. has been done. and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000.”
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