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Journalism of Courage
In a crackdown on liquified petroleum gas (LPG) refilling rackets, the Pune rural police arrested four people and seized 273 cylinders stored illegally and unsafely at a makeshift facility in Shirur on Monday.
Sleuths from the Shirur police station received a tip-off about a racket which refills LPG supplied in cylinders for domestic use in cylinders of various sizes used for commercial purposes. The racket was being run from a makeshift storage facility built on a farm at Malthan village in Shirur taluka of Pune district, said the police.
The arrested accused have been identified as Amol Nivrutti Fulsundar (39), Mallappa Amoshid Naravate (34). Basawraj Laxman Nanaje (30) and Siddharam Vithal Birajdar (31), all residents of Malthan. The police booked them Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections on negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible and explosives substances and provisions of Essential Commodities Act.
The police also seized several equipment and tools used for refilling and a truck used for the transport of the cylinders.
In the last week of March, explosions of at least 20 cylinders containing LPG were reported after a fire that started in an illegally-run gas refilling and storage unit in the Katraj area of Pune in which the gas was being transferred from larger to smaller cylinders. One person, who ran the unit and sustained minor injuries, was booked by the police.
