A police squad deployed from Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku on Sunday night arrested Ram Aadhar Sah, 47, joint secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology and former director general at the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, from Gaushala.
Similarly, Rabin Sharma, chief of the Thankot depot of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), was arrested under suspicion of involvement in the black market in petroleum products.
Sah, who is originally from Sonigaamaga VDC-6 of Dhanusha District, also came under scrutiny by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) a few years ago.
Acting on the basis of complaints from consumers and the confessions of different fuel station operators who were arrested a few weeks back, police hauled in the two men for allegedly misusing their authority.
“Preliminary investigations show that Sah was involved in promoting meter tampering, assisting in the purchase and installation of equipment needed for machine modifications and ignoring complaints registered against such offences,” said SSP Sarbendra Khanal, chief of Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku.
During investigations after the arrest of the fuel station operators, police came to suspect the involvement of higher-up kingpins.
“This is a very complex issue related to consumer rights. We are analyzing and studying the facts and statements,” SSP Khanal said. The police probe showed that different fuel station operators submitted a handsome amounts to Joint Secretary Sah at different times for his facilitating role.
Sah, who was remanded to three days in police custody on Monday, has denied any connection with the allegations.
A few weeks back, Nepal Police uncovered an alarming trend of cheating at fuel stations through meter tampering while at the same time consumers have been falling prey to the black market in petroleum products. Police had raided several fuel stations in Kathmandu Valley and established that 13 petrol pumps had cheated the public of Rs 142.8 million in the last 16 months through meter tampering.
Police had found that those stations had devised a cunning method of tampering with the fuel-dispensing mechanisms. It was impossible to install the tampering devices without the consent of the authorities concerned, SSP Khanal added.
Similarly, the Crime Division squad arrested NOC's Thankot depot chief Sharma, suspecting his involvement in irregularities and the fuel black market.
According to the investigators, Sharma has been found involved in monopolising the distribution of fuel to the petrol stations and to the black market, taking advantage of the critical shortage.
Police also said that a few others involved in the nexus are still at large.
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