New Delhi: For years, Shahnawaz has been running a stove shop in Meerut’s Pahalwan Chowk. However, this week, Delhi Police arrested him after they found him with a truck carrying 62 cylinders without a valid licence. He was allegedly selling them at Rs 3,500 in and around south east Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, police said on Tuesday.
One cylinder normally costs Rs 1,300 in the local market.
“Shahnawaz has never dealt with the sale of cylinders. This month, he found out about the crisis that Delhi and many other cities were facing. He knew if he started selling these cylinders even at exorbitant rates, he would be able to sell them,” said an officer investigating the case.
DCP (southeast) Hemant Tiwari said that during the preliminary enquiry, it was revealed that the accused was illegally selling LPG cylinders to residents of Jamia Nagar without issuing any slips or receipts in order to earn huge profits.
“The accused further disclosed that he was working in conspiracy with Mukesh, the owner of the vehicle,” he added.
Shahnawaz’s case isn’t an isolated incident amid concerns about LPG supply disruptions in India because of the Strait of Hormuz blockade due to the war in West Asia.
Police across multiple cities have cracked down on black marketing of LPG cylinders through hoarding, confusion over OTPs, or middlemen operating rackets for the illegal supply of LPG cylinders.
Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary of Marketing and Oil Refinery in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, told the media on Tuesday that around 12,000 raids had been conducted in recent days as part of enforcement efforts. Approximately 15,000 cylinders have been seized.
While she acknowledged that the issue of LPG cylinders remained a concern, she said that domestic bookings had improved.
Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that online LPG cylinder bookings had increased from about 84 percent to around 90 percent across the industry.
Delivery Authentication Code (DAC) coverage has been expanded from 53 percent before the crisis to about 72 percent to prevent diversion of cylinders at the distributor level.
A DAC is a secure verification code shared with customers for LPG cylinder deliveries. It must be provided to the delivery agent at the time of receiving the cylinder to ensure that the correct customer receives the cylinder.
Several states and UTs—including Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Manipur and Maharashtra—have issued orders to allocate non-domestic LPG in line with Central government guidelines.
“State Governments are undertaking enforcement measures to prevent hoarding and black marketing of petrol, diesel and LPG. Raids are being conducted in several States including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Mizoram, to check the hoardings and black marketing of LPG,” the ministry said in a statement.
Officials of PSU oil marketing companies have conducted surprise inspections at more than 1,100 retail outlets and LPG distributorships to ensure smooth supply and prevent irregularities, it added.
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Hoarding of cylinders
Police said they faced many challenges across neighbourhoods in several cities. Hoarding is one of the biggest issues.
Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, DCP (Crime Branch) in Delhi, said they conducted a raid on Sunday following a tip-off about suspected illegal storage and sale of LPG cylinders at a godown operating under the name Guruji Indane Gas Service.
Officers found commercial cylinders of multiple companies— Indane, Bharat Gas and HP—stored together on the premises.
“While the firm is an authorised distributor of Indane, it had stored cylinders of other companies in bulk and was selling them on the black market,” Yadav said.
Police recovered 610 cylinders in total—423 Indane, 92 Bharat Gas and 95 HP.
Police also found major discrepancies in stock records.
“As per communication from Indian Oil Corporation, the distributor’s stock of Indane cylinders was expected to be nil on 10 March. There were clear irregularities in stock management, and the cylinders were being hoarded and sold at inflated prices,” Yadav said.
An FIR has been registered under the Essential Commodities Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for criminal conspiracy. The owner of the godown is absconding.
“It is suspected that such illegal hoarding of LPG cylinders is often done during periods of supply constraints and artificial scarcity, where the hoarded cylinders are later sold in the market at inflated prices through black marketing. It exploits consumers and commercial users,” said Yadav.
OTP issue
Apart from issues like hoarding and the presence of middlemen, police in Patna are dealing with another major challenge: “ghost deliveries”.
Residents, already grappling with an LPG shortage, are reporting a consistent pattern to police: people are receiving official SMS notifications confirming that their cylinders had been delivered, while consumers never actually received them.
Police have begun crackdowns on discrepancies. “We have registered FIRs, we are tracing the movement of cylinders from the agency to the supposed delivery point, and cross-referencing GPS data and delivery logs,” said a senior police officer from Patna.
“Customers give an OTP up front at the time of booking. That is to convey the time of collection/delivery. But now, some agencies have started the practice of giving a delivery confirmation code, which authenticates the delivery,” said a Patna Police officer.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)