Alipurduar duo held over petrol 'racket'

TT, Calcutta: A CID team raided a petrol pump in Alipurduar's Birpara and arrested two persons, including the brother of the outlet's owner, on charges of cheating, theft and adulteration.

Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths caught a truck emptying industrial solvent inside an underground reservoir of the pump on Thursday night.

The truck from where the industrial solvent was being unloaded was found to contain 7,000 litres of the liquid that was being used as a fuel adulterant.

Industrial solvent is a low-priced petroleum product that find multiple uses in industries like the enamel paint industry and for industrial cleaning.

"It was evident that motorists who had refuelled their vehicles from this pump would have been cheated," said a senior officer of the CID.

Preliminary inquiry by the cops suggests that the adulterated fuel that would have been supplied from the pump would have contained 75 per cent of the industrial solvent and only 25 percent of petrol. "The remaining petrol was meant for black-marketing," the officer added.

Special superintendent CID (north Bengal) Ajoy Prasad said this was part of a larger racket that could have tentacles across the state. "We are working on certain leads where the industrial solvent has been smuggled for adulteration," Prasad said.