Fuel adulteration: Police react after filing of two formal FIRs

Suspected site sealed, samples collected for lab analysis

Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 22

It was assumed the police would investigate suo moto, but, they have been saved the trouble of making the first move.

On April 22, West Police Station received two FIRs with regard to the alleged fuel adulteration den at Ghorapatti exposed by the RPP a day earlier. 

The formal complaints were filed by the ACAUT and the Ghorapatti Council around noon today, after the police failed to react to a verbal complaint that was communicated some 15-16 hours earlier on Thursday evening. 

The Dimapur police later confirmed receiving the complaint and stated that investigation had begun. The complaints contained the name of one individual, who was said to be the proprietor of the truck garage where a suspected chemical agent used in fuel adulteration was discovered alongwith other materials. Two tanker trucks, suspected to have been serving as repositories for draining and collecting fuel from other tankers were also found parked in the same venue. 

According to the police, the address named in the complaint was sealed and samples collected for laboratory analysis as soon as the complaints were registered. 

Asked as to what would have stopped the police from registering a suo moto case, a Dimapur police official maintained that it often places the prosecution team in a disadvantageous position when such a case reaches the court. As per the official, witnesses are hard to come by and the defendant has the benefit of doubt given that the police have to depose as witness as well as the investigator.