Aurangabad, June 2:
The biggest gas refilling center operated illegally in the city was raided by the DCP Deepak Girhe’s squad at Padegaon on Thursday. The police seized 541 gas cylinders for commercial and domestic usage and other articles, all amounting to Rs 25.74 lakh. Five persons have been arrested in this connection while a case has been registered with the Cantonment police station.
As per the complaint lodged by PSI of Cantonment police station Ganesh Kedar, a special squad of DCP Girhe received information about the illegal refilling centre. API Harish Khataokar, constabulary staff Shaikh Haroon, R J Gawale, B G Giri raided the centre at Ansar Colony in front of Power House at Padegaon. Later, Cantonment police station PI Sharad Ingale, PSI Pandurang Dake, Ganesh Kedar, district civil supplies officer Rajendra Shinde, and others also rushed to the spot. Four persons were present at the centre. When the police asked them about the documents, they tried to mislead the police. The police arrested the main accused Syed Mujeeb Seth, Sharukh Anvar Qureshi (both Padegaon), Kishor Gokul Kharat (Osmanpura), Ishwar Sukhdev Ghaitadak (Ghaitadakwadi, Pathardi, District Ahmednagar) and a minor boy. The police seized 541 cylinders, 5 weighing scales, 5 electric motors, Eicher Truck, two loading rickshaws, and one passenger rickshaw, all worth Rs 25.74 lakh. PI Sharad Ingale is further investigating the case.
Gas was filled in the empty cylinders and the vehicles and a huge business were made through it. The respective police stations are completely ignoring these illegal activities in their jurisdictions. It is known that CP has given directives for taking action against these illegal centres.
This illegal centre at Padegaon is run by Mujeeb Seth. He has one more such centre at the Bazar area in Cantonment. The police had completely ignored these activities. After the police action, there is a panic among the illegal gas refilling centre operators. It will be interesting to see when the action will be taken against the other centres.
35 cylinders seized at Jaisinghpura
Meanwhile, the Begumpura police team seized 35 cylinders, and other articles worth Rs 48,400 were seized from an illegal gas refilling centre at Jaisinghpura. The police arrested operator Shaikh Salman Shaikh Pasha. The action was executed under the guidance of PI Prashant Potdar by PSI Vishal Bodkhe and the team.
541 cylinders included
7 filled commercial cylinders, 51 empty commercial, 175 domestic gas-filled cylinders, 206 empty domestic, and 5 kgs capacity 102 cylinders.