Of the two types of fuel dispensers--manual and digital--the racketeers were more active in tampering the digital device.
The police have also identified two rackets, one active in Kathmandu valley and the other in the rest of the country.
Following the complaints from the consumers and consumer rights organizations, the police on Monday uncovered the practice of cheating by petrol pumps and arrested the owners of petrol pumps and the mechanics involved in altering the fuel dispenser.
"We are yet to make further investigations into the case but the mechanics arrested have claimed that they were active for the last 25 years," SSP Sarbendra Khanal, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku said.
Preliminary investigation of the police has revealed that Nashim Siddiqui, 44, originally from Motihari-2 of Bihar, India, who also holds Nepali citizenship and currently lives in Koteshwar, was the main mechanic who led the group of mechanics that tempered with the fuel dispensers at petrol pumps across Kathmandu Valley.
Siddiqui, who also owns a petrol pump in Kathmandu, hired his relatives--Aaub Aalam, 35, Hamid Hussain aka Mintu, 25, Saikh Imtihaj, 35, and Mohammad Aawarar, 23--all from Motihari of Bihar to tamper with fuel dispensers across Kathmandu.
"I have no idea about the number of digital petrol pumps where I installed the tampering devices," said Aalam, who holds a diploma in electronics and is active in the Kathmandu Valley since the last 10 years. He confessed to the police that the devices can be easily brought from Lucknow in India for NRs 24,000.
The devices used in digital pumps contain pulsar card, remote, receiver, device, control card, power supply, display and keypad, among others. Whereas the devices used in the manual pumps are assembly, gear, safety pin.
Both digital and manual pumps were found to be controlled by cards, chips or safety pins installed inside them and accessed by remote control in the digital machines. The terms the mechanics use are 'pulsar fitting' in the digital machines and 'gear fitting' in the manual ones.
"The devices were installed during the night time on the pretext of maintaining the machines," said Aalam, adding that it took just about 30 minutes to install the devices.
According to DSP Ramesh Thapa, who is leading the investigation, the racket was the only of its kind operating in Nepal.
So far, about 13 fuel stations have been found to have tampered with the fuel-dispensing machines to increase the fuel delivery pulse in such a way that the money charged and the fuel pumped are shown to match accurately. During a press conference organized at the Division Office, SSP Khanal said that some operators have been on the run since the news of cheating came to light.
The police have found that consumers can be cheated between 3 and 9 percent of the fuel dispensed when the machines are activated.
It was important to review all the petrol pumps across the country as the tested and verified machines by the Department of Standard and Meteorology also were found modified with the devices, police said.
Metropolitan Police Crime Division has raided 19 fuel stations in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur in three days.
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