Mumbai: The Thane Police Crime Branch on Monday got custody of Vivek Shetye in connection with the petrol pilferage racket busted last month.
Shetye, a Dombivli resident, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in connection with a similar racket there, where customers were being given less fuel than they were paying for. This was being done by tampering with fuel dispensing machines, and Shetye is alleged to have prepared the chips installed in the machines.
After the Thane Police Crime Branch busted a similar racket and went on to raid petrol pumps in various cities of Maharashtra, they sought Shetye’s custody. “We obtained Shetye’s transit remand and brought him to Thane on Monday night. We then obtained his custody till Saturday and are now interrogating him in connection with the petrol pumps that we have raided till date,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Trimukhe, Thane Police Crime Branch.
The police have so far raided 78 petrol pumps and arrested 19 accused, which include owners and managers of the petrol pumps and technicians working there.
“Shetye used to work for a private firm that supplies fuel dispensing machines to petrol pumps and was later running a work shop that manufactured electronic circuits. He had the knowledge and the experience to make chips that would manipulate the reading of fuel dispensers,” said Mr. Trimukhe.
The police have not found any common link between the petrol pumps that they have raided, leading investigators to believe that there are more than one persons supplying such chips.
The police are interrogating Shetye, who is believed to be part of such a network of experts, in order to identify and apprehend the other suppliers.
The police said for the most part, fuel was being pilfered by installing chips that would show incorrect readings on fuel dispensers, leading the customer to believe that he was getting his money’s worth. However, in reality, the machines were dispensing anything between 40 ml and 200 ml less. In some cases, the accused had tampered with the key pads to show false readings.
