AURANGABAD: City police on Thursday morning unearthed a major gas refilling station that was being illegally operated from the vicinity of a school in the Lota Karanja area of the city.
As many as 90 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders have also been seized by police from the spot. This is the second raid by police at the same spot in the past couple of months.
The first raid was carried out on February 7 by a team from City Chowk police station, but only six cylinders were seized then. A senior police officer said that after the incident where 20 LPG cylinders exploded in Katraj area of Pune on Wednesday, commissioner of police Nikhil Gupta ordered to take action against any illegal gas refilling units in the city limits.
Accordingly, a team led by city division’s assistant commissioner of police Ashok Thorat went to Janta washing centre situated on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road and busted the racket. Other than 90 LPG cylinders, the raiding party seized five refilling machines, five weighing machines, a mini tempo, among other things having a valuation running into several lakhs.
A police officer said the station was being illegally run from the neighbourhood of two schools, posing a grievous threat to the students as well as locals residing in the area. Locals have levelled allegations against local area police station for turning a blind eye to the illegal activities.
Officials maintained that due to all-time high price of petrol, large number of vehicles especially auto-rickshaws have installed convertible kits that allow their vehicles run on LPG in order to bring down their expenses.
