The special task force of the Uttar Pradesh police on Monday arrested the man who allegedly supplied electronic chips to petrol pump owners accused of short-changing customers in various districts of the state, from the city’s Para area.
In a major breakthrough, the STF zeroed in on cheat chip supplier Ajay Chaurasia after the interrogation of another accused in the multi-crore rupee petrol pump scam – Jauhar Abbas of Muzaffarnagar who was arrested earlier.
SSP, STF, Amit Pathak said the police seized four chips, electronic circuits and a petrol dispensing unit from Chaurasia. An FIR has been lodged at Para police station.
The probe into the scam has revealed that around 80% of petrol pumps across UP were using cheat chips to dispense low quantities of fuel.
The STF had unearthed the petrol pump scam on April 28. Since then, several raids have been conducted on various fuel stations in Lucknow and other places.
Petrol pump owners were found using a hi-tech chip-based device to dispense lower quantities of petrol to consumers than what they paid for.
The police action followed the arrest of an electrician Rajendra, who confessed to installing the chips at hundreds of petrol pumps across Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere.
The raids on seven fuel pumps in Lucknow on April 28 also led to the arrest of 22 others, including four petrol pump owners after seven FIRs were lodged in this connection. At least 15 electronic chips and 29 remote control devices were seized from these filling stations. All the seven petrol pumps were sealed and officials recommended the cancellation of their licences.
These seven fuel stations included those owned by the president of UP Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association BN Shukla and his son Gopal.
The petrol pump owners who were arrested include Aman and Anoop Mittal, Sharad Chand Vaishya and Anand Kumar Rai.
Source: HindustanTimes