Click to play videoMathura/New Delhi: Petrol adulteration in Uttar Pradesh is a business and the mafia running it has no fear of the law. A CNN-IBN Special Investigation found that the area around the Mathura Oil Refinery is a hub for adulteration which begins as soon as oil tankers roll out of the refinery gates.
“This is our business and we have been in this for ages,” says a mafia leader. The Mathura refinery is one of the six owned by the Indian Oil Corporation.
The petrol adulteration mafia stalks the area around this refinery and both the local administration and law enforcement authorities look the other way. There is a reason for that: Mafia members allege that they regularly give bribes to officials.
"We are not scared of administration at all, they get their quota,” says the mafia leader. The CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team has on camera caught the mafia siphoning and adulterating petrol from an oil tanker just a few hundred metres away from the refinery.
When the CNN-IBN crew spotted near the refinery, goons on motorcycles chased us. “As soon a truck comes out of the refinery, we take it directly to our store. In the store we swap the oil. We have setting an understanding with drivers. The trade is well organised and every one gets their cut. There is no confusion between the administration and us,” says the mafia leader.
Indian Oil Corporation officer S Manjunath was murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri last year after he warned a petrol pump against selling adulterated petrol.
The Lucknow High Court, while citing his brutal murder, observed that at least 50 per cent petrol pumps in the state have been allocated to persons with mafia links and most of them adulterate petrol.
There is money in it |
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 An oil tanker can carry 60 drums, meaning the mafia earns Rs 60,000 per tanker. |
| If 10 tankers are adulterated in a day, the mafia earns Rs 6 lakh every day. |
| Naphta is the first choice to adulterate petrol. |
| Lucknow High Court has observed that 50 p.c. of state’s petrol pumps are run by people with mafia links. |
The easiest way to adulterate petrol and diesel is to add kerosene, but the mafia prefers to mix naphtha. By adulterating a 200-litre drum of petrol, the mafia earns Rs 1,000. A regular oil tanker can carry 60 drums which means the mafia earns Rs 60,000 per tanker. If 10 tankers are adulterated in a day, the mafia earns Rs 6 lakh every day.
IOC officials don’t deny adulteration takes place. “Adulteration is a serious thing, as our customers get sub-standard quality and don’t get value for money. We act whenever we get information,” says Sharat Meshram, General Manager of IOC.
Manjunath dared to take on the racket and was murdered. As the mafia leader warns: “We knock off anyone who comes in our way.”
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