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Indian army involved in fuel
pilferage in IHK
Jammu— In occupied Kashmir, thousands of litres of petrol and
kerosene oil are pilfered from Indian Army supplies in Kashmir
Valley. According to Kashmir Media Service, the fuel meant for
Indian troops deployed in the occupied territory is sold in black
market by a well organized racket, a senior police officer told
media men in Jammu, adding that over 20 cases related to theft of
army petrol had been registered in the past four months.
“At least 20 cases have been registered regarding pilferage of army
supplies,” the official said. The racket has links to both the army
and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which supplies fuel to the
military. Oil supplied to the Indian army deployed in occupied
Kashmir is transported in private tankers.
Anand Sharma, president of the Petrol Tankers Association here, who
has monitored the racket closely said, “A large quantity of the
army’s oil supply gets pilfered because of a nexus among army
personnel, tanker drivers and agents. Indeed, over 50 percent of the
supplies are pilfered.
This is worth hundreds of millions of rupees.” He said that corrupt
army personnel earned 50 percent of the money generated by the sale
of pilfered oil. The rest was divided among the driver, the
middleman and the fuel outlet. Colonel D.K. Kachari, public
relations officer of the Indian army’s Northern Command headquarters
at Udhampur, about 70 km from Jammu, confirmed “discrepancy in oil
supplies” in some fuel tankers.
A police officer told media men that a group of military personnel
ransacked the Magam police station in Budgam district in September
2007 after the police caught some soldiers involved in the illegal
sale of kerosene. —KMS
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