New Delhi, March 16 Delhi Police has busted a racket storing over 600 LPG cylinders in a warehouse in the Mundka area and arrested a man in a separate case for illegally refilling gas cylinders, officials said on Monday.
In the first case, the Crime Branch conducted a raid at a warehouse under the name of Guruji Indane Gas Service in the Mundka area, police said in a statement.
During the raid on Sunday, the team found that commercial LPG cylinders belonging to multiple oil marketing companies were stored together inside the warehouse.
The premise was authorized only for the distribution of Indane commercial cylinders, but it had cylinders belonging to other companies, such as Bharat Gas and HP Gas, violating the licensing conditions and control regulations, the statement said.
"During the search, a total of 610 LPG cylinders, both filled and empty, were recovered. This included 423 cylinders of Indane, 92 cylinders of Bharat Gas and 95 cylinders of HP Gas," it added.
Among the Indane cylinders, 133 were filled while 290 were empty. The team also seized 17 filled and 75 empty cylinders of Bharat Gas, and 47 filled and 27 empty cylinders of HP Gas.
The statement further said that 21 small-sized empty cylinders were also recovered during the spot.
Further verification also revealed discrepancies in stock records. According to preliminary information received from officials of Indian Oil Corporation, the authorized stock of Indane commercial cylinders at the distributorship was expected to be nil as of March 10, 2025.
However, during the raid, police found 133 filled Indane commercial cylinders present inside the premises, raising suspicion of irregular stock management and illegal storage.
Police suspect that such hoarding of LPG cylinders is often carried out during periods of supply shortage or artificial scarcity, after which the cylinders are sold in the market at inflated prices through black marketing.
"Illegal storage of LPG cylinders also poses serious safety hazards as the highly inflammable cylinders were kept without following mandatory safety protocols. The raid was conducted in the presence of an officer from the Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Department,” they added.
Based on the findings, a case has been registered under Section 7 (penalties for violating control orders) of the Essential Commodities Act and Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Crime Branch police station, an officer said.
He added that the owners of the godown were not present during the raid and are currently absconding. Efforts are underway to trace and apprehend them.
Police arrested a 46-year-old man for allegedly refilling LPG gas from large cylinders into smaller ones at his shop in Shakarpur.
On Sunday, police received a tip-off regarding the black marketing and illegal refilling of LPG cylinders. Based on the information, a raid was conducted in the shop, and Yogesh Gupta, from Shakarpur, was arrested.
The accused admitted to refilling LPG gas from large domestic cylinders into smaller cylinders for the past few days, a police officer of the east district said.
During the search of the shop, police recovered two domestic LPG cylinders of 14.2 kg capacity, three small cylinders of five kg each, a "totapilas" (gas transferring pipe), an LPG refilling machine and a weighing machine.
"The accused did not possess any license or authorisation to carry out LPG refilling activity and was operating the setup without any safety measures. Such illegal refilling poses serious risks of fire or explosion in densely populated areas," the officer said.
A case has been registered against Gupta at Shakarpur police station under sections 3 (powers to control production, supply, distribution, etc., of essential commodities) and 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, he said.
The case also added Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and further investigation is underway.