BJP MLA demands CBI probe into oil scam
Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kailash Choudhary on Sunday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and Union petroleum minister and demanded a central bureau of investigation (CBI) probe into the Barmer oil scam.
Choudhary, who represents Barmer’s Baitu assembly constituency, also demanded that a sedition case be registered against the culprits in the case.
The Rajasthan police have cracked a criminal syndicate accused of smuggling more than 50 million litres of crude oil inside water tankers at the Cairn India oilfield.
The theft at the Cairn India oilfield went undetected for nearly six years until police in the state arrested 25 people this week for involvement in the sophisticated smuggling network.
Earlier, BJP MP from Barmer Col. Sonaram Choudhary too demanded a high-level probe into the matter.
Choudhary in his letter said crude oil theft has been running for a long time from the Cairn India operated Saraswati oil field in the Barmer-Sanchore basin.
The BJP lawmaker alleged that the scam was being carried out by an organized gang even before the company started to transport crude through heated pipe line and has cause huge revenue loss to the national exchequer.
Recently the Nagana police in Barmer seized a tanker—with a permit to transport water--with stolen crude.
Choudhary claimed that after he noticed the company’s suspicious role in oil exploration, he raised the issue in state assembly.
He said that he had raised questions about the measurements of oil exploration, quantity of oil produced from wells and also wanted to know how the government monitoring system and was told that the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) was monitoring it.
In his letter, Choudhary said the recent episode has clearly indicated that theft was being carried out in connivance with crude oil transporters and some company officials and employees and also questioned the role of the ONGC.
Earlier, BJP parliamentarian from Barmer Col. Sonaram Choudhary too questioned the role of officials of Cairn India — the company producing oil —in the multi-crore crude oil scam.
Apart from the company officials, crude transporters and some police officials are also involved in it, he alleged in the letter.
“The police have caught some small fish and as the investigation progresses more big fish will be in the net.”