Uttar Pradesh director general of police Sulkhan Singh has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe a multi-crore petrol pump scam exposed through raids at seven petrol pumps in the state capital.
The raids, conducted by the special task force (STF) on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, revealed that the petrol pump owners were using a hi-tech chip-based device to dispense lower quantities of petrol to consumers than what they paid for. The police action had followed the arrest of an electric technician – identified as Rajendra – who confessed to installing the “cheat chip” at hundreds of petrol pumps across Uttar Pradesh and beyond.
Incidentally, the seven petrol pumps found using electronic chips to cheat customers included those owned by UP Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association president BN Shukla and his son, Gopal Shukla. The association president’s filling station – the Standard Petrol Pump – is located in Madiaon.
The STF suspects that the chips have been sold to a large number of pumps. As per STF estimate, a petrol pump using this chip earns an undue profit of around Rs 14 lakh per month.