THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The Verna PI told The Goan on Monday that the Verna police had started an inquiry into case of the driver who on April 24 suffered from terrible burn injuries and had been admitted to a hospital.
The driver, who is in the employment of Shidhivinayak Transport, a company which transports LPG gas cylinder loads from the Bharat Petroleum bottling plant at Verna to the respective Bharat Gas LPG dealers had suffered terrible burn injuries last week, when an accident took place during the alleged illegal pilfering of upto four kgs of gas from 14.2 kgs LPG cylinders.
The Verna PI however said that nobody had filed a complaint at the police station about the incident, but that the police started an inquiry after learning about the incident.
The driver Farooq is reported to still be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a private hospital.
Meanwhile, NGO GOACAN wrote to the Territory Manager of the Goa LPG Territory of Bharat Petroleum about the bigger problem surrounding the incident.
Citing the report that appeared in “The Goan” on Saturday, co-ordinator of GOACAN Roland Martins has requested an inquiry be carried out in the matter.
“We request you to conduct an inquiry into this matter so that the confidence of the Bharat Gas consumers in Goa is not affected by the illegal activities of some unscrupulous elements in the distribution of LPG cylinders,” stated the letter.
Martins has also sent copies of the letter to the Regional LPG Manager (Western Region) of Bharat Petroleum in Navi Mumbai, the Chief Vigilance Officer of Bharat Petroleum in Mumbai, the South Goa Collector, the Director of the
Department of Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and the Director of the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services.
Allegedly, efforts are on to suppress this matter, because of the racket going on in pilfering LPG.
The Bharat Gas Sales Manager Mathura Baidya had earlier confirmed that Farooq worked for Shidhivinayak Transport and was in hospital due to burn injuries.
He had also confirmed that Farooq's name was on the pool of drivers entering the Bharat Petroleum Plant in Verna to deposit the empty cylinders and collect the refills.
"The Goan" had reported around two years ago, how illegal devices were used to transfer gas from one cylinder to a second one which was later resold.
