‘My poor sales officers are helpless…it’s very dangerous to raid’

The reason: it was “very dangerous.”

The government’s own figures, given to the Lok Sabha this week, make it clear that Manjunath, by reporting against three pumps for adulteration, was doing what few officers have done: over the last one year, less than 0.5 per cent of the over 1 lakh petrol pumps across the country were reported for adulteration.

This despite the fact, confirmed by study after study (see box), that more and more subsidised kerosene is being siphoned off to spike diesel.

In July 2003, the IOC chairman couldn’t have been more direct. “When the powerful state machinery supported by the police and the law-enforcement agencies cannot do anything, then what to talk about the poor sales officers,” he told the Standing Committee on Petroleum and Chemicals headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“While the power is there for the sales officer, but to state the truth before the committee, these are anti-social elements and it is very dangerous to go and raid them,” Ramachandran said.

He was deposing before the committee on import of kerosene by private firms which was being diverted for spiking diesel. That import freedom is now gone but what remains is subsidised kerosene sold through the public distribution scheme which is being diverted as an adulterant.

This is what experts say lies at the heart of Manjunath’s murder.

Consider this:

• Retail price of PDS kerosene in Lucknow (Manjunath was killed in nearby Lakhimpur Kheri) is Rs 9.98 per litre, that of diesel Rs 33.65 per litre.

• So mixing the two makes great business sense.

• For example, the retailer, by mixing 400 litres of kerosene in 600 litres of diesel, would make almost Rs 9,468 on the transaction. If he didn’t, his commission from IOC would be a paltry Rs 509 for 1,000 litres of diesel.

Manjunath detected this adulteration—in the form of stock variation—at Sulakhsan Mittal’s petrol pump in September. His adverse report resulted in a fine of Rs 75,000 and a one-month sales suspension.

On November 19, Manjunath inspected the outlet again. Internal mails of IOC say that he found irregularities which, if reported, would have ended Mittal’s dealership forever.

Police have said that Monu Mittal, the pump owner’s son, phoned Manjunath to collect his inspection measure that the sales officer had accidentally left behind. He was shot and his body dumped in the back of his car.