A day after police arrested two high-level government officials on charge of their involvement in black-marketeering, reports of extensive and systematic fraud in fuel distribution have emerged.

Police on Monday charged Ravin Sharma, Chief of Thankot depot of the Nepal Oil Corporation, for taking bribe of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 from each fuel tanker which distributed petroleum products to fuel stations in the Valley.

Following the blockade, which resulted in acute crisis of fuel, Sharma was involved in distributing less amount of fuel to petrol pumps, while rest was sold at higher prices in black market, said police.

Another arrestee, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Ram Adhar Shah, was involved in introducing fuel meter tampering technology. Shah, during his tenure as the chief of Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, was involved in getting the meter tampering technology installed at petrol pumps for which he used to get cut from petrol pumps. Sharma and Shah would also constantly blackmail petrol pump owners, police said.

Police had earlier arrested Nashim Siddiqui, 44, of Bihar, India, who installed meter tampering technology at petrol pumps in the Valley.

Kathmandu District Court has remanded the two government officials to two days in remand.

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division is preparing to file cases against the two officials, along with seven other persons of 13 fuel stations, who were arrested 23 days ago on charge of tampering with fuel meters. Other six petrol pump owners are at large.

Senior Superintendent of Police Sarbendra Khanal, Chief of MPCD, said police are also investigating whether other officials were also involved in the fraud.

Police said a single person was found to be owning nine petrol pumps in and outside the Valley. Tanka Kumar Chettri owns petrol pumps in Kathmandu, Dhading and Bara. Chettri is at large.