BATHINDA: A Punjab food and civil supplies department team on Thursday seized a fuel tanker helping refuel buses of a senior SAD leader Hardeep Singh Dimpy. The tanker after getting supplies from Satpal Traders filling station at Gidderbaha was filling a tank at a fuel station in Bathinda to further refuel New Deep Company and Mandeep buses owned by Dimpy in the same town. Transferring oil in tanker from one place to another is violation of the norms of Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply and Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order 2005.Bathinda SSP Nanak Singh said, “Two cases have been registered at the Bathinda Civil Lines police station and Gidderbaha police station in the matter. At Bathinda, the case has been registered against owner of New Deep bus (not named) and driver Sardari Lal under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter, 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC. At Gidderbaha, the case has been registered against the owner of the petrol pump (not named) under Essential Commodities Act and sections 23A (wrongful gain), 336 and 285 of the IPC.”Dimpy though admitted that it was an unauthorised act but claimed that the action had been taken on political considerations. A complaint of illegal transference of fuel from Gidderbaha to Bathinda areas was made to minister for food supplies Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who ordered the crackdown to check if huge amount of fuel was being supplied clandestinely from Gidderbaha to the fuel station in Bathinda. Acting on the orders, a team headed by assistant director, food supplies, Punjab, Rakesh Kumar Singla, district food supplies controller Amanpreet Singh Virk, assistant food supply officer Praveen Gupta, food supplies inspector Harbhajan Singh and weights and measures inspector Mandeep Singh cracked down on the illegal business.Singla said, “The minister had received complaints, alleging that fuel tankers were being loaded from Satpal Traders Fuelling Station in Gidderbaha and further sent to fuel stations in Bathinda. Following the tip-off, the team on Thursday stationed itself outside Satpal Traders fuel station. A tanker (PB 30L 3178) got supplies of 4,000 litres of fuel. Another tanker (PB 30N 7478) was filled from the same fuelling station. Both left for Bathinda with the food supplies team secretly following it. The first tanker reached the fuel pump and bus parking shed of New Deep Bus Company on Bathinda-Mansa Road. However, the second tanker left for Balluana. On the Bathinda-Mansa Road the team caught them red-handed while illegally refuelling buses of New Deep Bus Service.Virk added that the first tanker used to refuel buses of New Deep Bus Service stationed on Bathinda-Mansa Road on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the other tanker used to fuel buses of the same company while they were on the move on different routes. He said Satpal Traders had violated the norms that do not allow sale of petroleum products other than at the authorized points of sale. The tankers have also violated Petroleum Act 1934 and Petroleum Rule 2002 for endangering lives of public with unauthorized movement of petroleum products.On the other hand, Dimpy said, “We had given the buses and tanker on lease. There was no danger involved as fuel was being filled from our own petrol pump into the buses of our company. The action of sealing the pump and seizing the vehicles is politically motivated.”

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