MLA’s role in LPG ‘blackmarketing’ to be probed

The Jalandhar Commissionerate Police will probe the role of Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora in the alleged theft and blackmarketing of LPG, as the man who got lodged a fresh FIR of extortion against him is behind bars on the same charges in Hoshiarpur.

Days before Arora's re-arrest, complainant Ramesh Kumar was himself arrested on August 24 along with his brother Raj Kumar and two others. They were arrested two days after an LPG explosion had rocked Mandiala village of Hoshiarpur in which seven persons had lost their lives, 12 were injured and several people had lost their livelihood.

On the day Arora was to be released from the Nabha jail after getting bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a corruption case, he was brought on production remand by the Rama Mandi police in the new extortion case lodged on the complaint Ramesh Kumar. Complainant Ramesh Kumar was mentioned as a parking lot contractor at Lamma Pind in Jalandhar in the FIR number 253 lodged against Arora. He had alleged that Arora used to extort Rs 30,000 from him every month for being allowed to run the contract.

But now it has emerged that there was more to it and Arora could have been patronising theft and blackmarketing of LPG in Jalandhar too, as the Indian Oil Depot falls in Suchi Pind in his Jalandhar Central Assembly segment and the parking lot which Ramesh used to manage was hardly 1.5 km from the depot.

The tankers of the company are known to be using the parking lot.

The timing of the lodging of the complaint by Ramesh Kumar in the Rama Mandi police station also adds to the mystery. As per reports, the Bullowal police station teams in Hoshiarpur received information about explosion at 9.55 pm. The complainant had reached the Rama Mandi police station just 15 minutes later at 10.10 pm as per the copy of the FIR lodged against the MLA. The FIR, however, was registered the next morning against the MLA at 7.11 am.

Arora is in three-day police remand. He is to be presented before the duty magistrate tomorrow. A senior official from the Commissionerate Police said, "We shall definitely seek the extension of his remand. Now that we know that there is a possibility of his involvement with a gang involved in the LPG theft case, we need to probe him in that case too. Till we booked Arora, we only knew Ramesh Kumar as a parking lot contractor."