(FE)
The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police have made two crucial arrests from Maharashtra, including one from Pune, in connection with the multi-crore petrol pump scam, in which several petrol pumps in the state were found using remote control-linked electronic chips in their fuel dispensing machines to cheat consumers by providing them less fuel than what has been charged for. STF believes it to be a pan-India scam.
Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amit Pathak of UP STF, said, “It is a widespread scam. We have informed the Ministry of Petroleum to conduct checks at all petrol pumps in the country.”On Sunday evening, the UP STF sleuths, along with the crime branch of Thane police, arrested Avinash Manohar Naik, resident of Sai Vihar apartment near Rail Vihar on the Gurudwara Road in Chinchwad. Police also arrested Vivek Harishchandra Shetye, a resident of a row house in Chandresh Villa Co-operative Housing Society, Lodha Heaven, Nilje, Dombivali east Thane.
The UP STF has so far arrested about 28 persons in this case registered at the Para police station in Lucknow, under sections 267, 420, 472, 473, 484, 485, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). STF Additional SP Arvind Chaturvedi said that Vivek Shetye and Naik, arrested from Maharashtra, are one of the masterminds. “Vivek was allegedly involved in manufacturing of the electronic chips and software installation. Naik was allegedly involved in assembling and supplying the remotes, which were used for tampering the fuel dispensing units at the petrol pumps,” he said.
