Cyberabad police on Thursday said that they have busted a gang indulging in irregularities at several petrol pumps across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka with the connivance of bunk operators and staff, and arrested of eight persons include owners/leasers of petrol pumps.
The Cyberabad police’s Special Operations Team (SOT) traced installation of chips, which were programmed with manipulated software, in fuel filling machines at various petrol bunks, and causing heavy loss to consumers by delivering less fuel than the actual display.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Balanagar Zone, Cyberabad P.V. Padmaja announced the arrest of eight accused, who were booked under Indian Penal Code’s Sections 420 (cheating), 265 (fraudulent use of false weight or measure) and 266 (Being in possession of false weight or measure).
The arrests were made in connection with the cases booked at Jeedimetla, Medchal, Mailardevpally, Jawahar Nagar, and Medipally police stations. The irregularities were also committed at 28 petrol bunks at Kamareddy, Khammam, Wanaparthy, Mahaboobnagar, Nellore, Suryapet, Siddipet and other various places in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The accused include mechanic Faizul Bari, Kurade Sandeep, M. Aslam, and Kalimera Narsinga Rao.
Vandyala Vamshidhar Reddy, assistant manager at a petrol bunk at Hakimpet, Rangu Ramesh, manager at IOC Hari Hara bunk, Pudur, Medchal, Beeravelli Maheshwar Rao, supervisor at GMR filling station, Mailardevpally, and Nagandla Venkatesh, who had taken two bunks on lease (IOC Lakshmi Ganesh at Jedimpetla and IOC Moula Service at Shamshabad were also arrested.
According to police, Faizul Bari, Sandeep, Aslam and Narsinga Rao had previously worked as petrol pump mechanics. Two of the accused were involved in a petrol bunk cheating case of Kukatpally police station in 2014.
They became experts in installation of manipulated chips in fuel dispensing machines which delivers less petrol than actual display on board/metre.
The first three accused accused purchased the manipulated software of all manufacturing companies from Jayesh of Gujarat and started programming the chips and the fourth copied the same chip at Kolanpaka petrol bunk and also continued to install the same in different petrol pumps in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh at the rate of Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 2,00,000 per each programmed chip installation from the petrol bunk owners.
The seized property include six two-wheelers, three mother boards, two laptops, nine cell phones, one universal programmer, one programme adapter and several other components used for manipulation of filling meters.
The operation was carried out under the supervision of DCP, SOT Cyberabad, G. Sandeep.
