A well-oiled fuel racket

After additional district collector's murder by petrol robbers near Manmad, MiD DAY finds fuel adulteration racket in Nashik district is big business, fetching oil mafia Rs 5 lakh per day

A well-oiled fuel racket

After additional district collector's murder by petrol robbers near Manmad, MiD DAY finds fuel adulteration racket in Nashik district is big business, fetching oil mafia Rs 5 lakh per day

The oil mafia in Nashik district earns at least Rs 5 lakh per day. And Additional District Collector Yashwant Sonawane fell prey to the greed of these fuel robbers, who set him afire when he raided their premises at a roadside dhaba near Manmad, Nashik.u00a0u00a0

The Panewadi project in which a 253-km oil pipeline was laid between Mumbai refineries to Panewadi plant near Manmad was commissioned on June 24, 2001 to blend petrol with ethanol.

About 100 to 125 tankers are filled everyday at the Panewadi plant, which supply petroleum products to about 12 districts in the state. "Before the Panewadi project was commissioned, the adulteration racket was operated on the Thane-Nashik highway and Kasara Ghat on Mumbai-Nashik highway.

The basic modus operandi of the adulterators is to siphon off oil from the tankers filled at the plant and then sell them in the adulterated form," said an officer from the Nashik district administration. "The tankers filled at the Panewadi plant stop at different dhabas and shady spots where the fuel is siphoned off. Every tanker is filled with about 1,000 litres of petrol or diesel, of which 100 litres is drawn out. We can estimate that about 10,000 litres of fuel is taken out everyday, then adulterated and sold out."

The officer said several groups were behind the racket. "The adulterators have a well-knit network of employees, but it does not amount to an organised crime syndicate as such.

There's no one person heading the racket but several groups are behind it," he said.

When asked about the political clout enjoyed by these mafias, the source said that leaders from all parties received funds from the oil mafias. So there's no political will to tackle the issue. Moreover, the officers of petroleum companies and the administration are also hand-in-glove with the racketeers. Deputy Superintendent of Police Samadhan Pawar said: "The suspect who set the Additional District Collector Yashwant Sonawane on fire has been identified as Popat Shinde (50)."

Shinde was externed in 2006 and three cases were registered against him in 2010 under the Essential Commodities Act. "We have been receiving complaints about adulteration and we will crack down hard on such racketeers," Pawar said.

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