Gurgaon: A gas supplier was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly black marketing LPG cylinders. Authorities seized 69 cylinders, along with three pickup vehicles, during a raid near a gas plant on Jail Road.Forty-eight-year-old Sushil Kumar told police that he took orders from gas agencies but “withheld delivery, hoarding the cylinders to sell them later at higher prices in the black market”. Kumar, a resident of Shanti Kunj Phase 2 in Bhondsi’s Maruti Kunj, was nabbed during a joint operation by a specialised enforcement unit and the food and supplies department.Police said the teams acted on specific inputs about illegal storage and black marketing of gas cylinders at a plot located opposite the Indane gas plant. A raid was conducted. During the operation, officials found the cylinders — 26 filled and 43 empty — loaded in three pickup vehicles. A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act at Sector 65 police station.Police spokesperson Sandeep Turan said, “The accused told police that he was engaged in the gas cylinder supply business in Gurgaon for the past five years.”Many residents in the city have been finding it difficult getting gas supply or gas cylinders. Residents find themselves in a crisis after the US and Israel fired missiles at Iran and one of the world’s main energy supply routes came to a halt. In India, the impact was felt in a strain on LPG supply. Also, the food vendors, whose livelihoods depend on commercial cooking gas, are facing the full brunt of it.
