About a month ago, a joint team of the National Vigilance Centre and Rupandehi Police had caught 19 people for allegedly stealing gasoline from tankers en route to the Valwari Depot of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) from Raxaul, India.

Tanker drivers, their helpers, fuel traders and NOC employees have been suspected of being involved in

the theft. The confiscated tankers along with the tools used in the theft will be used as evidence.  

Nirajan Pandey, deputy district attorney at the Office of the Public Advocate, said the state had asked for confiscation of property and imprisonment of the accused. “As other cases have also been filed against the accused, property confiscation is seen to be a relatively minor demand,” he said.

Along with theft, charges of money laundering, abuse of authority, customs evasion and black marketing have been brought against the accused. Shyam Prasad Ghimire, registrar of the District Court, said the accused would be jailed for two months and their property confiscated if found guilty.

Charges of black marketing were filed with the District Administration Office, Bhairahawa on Sunday. As per the Black Market Act, the guilty can be jailed for up to five years. The black marketing charges will be forwarded after a decision on the theft case has been handed down.

The police have presented all the 28 accused before the court. A number of those against whom arrest warrants have been issued are at large. Ghimire said the court had been studying the charge sheet, and that a hearing on the stay order would be held only after obtaining details from the accused. “It will take at least five days to complete the process.”

Three NOC employees including the chief of the Valwari unit Nagendra Kurmi and two other officials Devendra Basnet and Rabindra Kumar Raut have also been arrested. The police have caught the tanker owner Hari Bahadur Kunwar, drivers and helpers.

Meanwhile, Chop Narayan Shrestha, central committee member of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and 15 others accused in the case are in hiding.