GREY PAPER ON IOC JAIPUR FIRE, FIR, & INVESTIGATION ETC
INTRODUCTION: -
v A WHITE PAPER is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are often used in politics and business.
v A GREEN PAPER is a tentative government report of a proposal without any commitment to action; the first step in changing the law. Green papers may result in the production of a white paper.
v A GREY PAPER is a report prepared by a concerned citizen in PUBLIC INTEREST when the Government or the agency concerned is hiding the truth with an object to save the culprits.
JAIPUR FIRE: -
1. On 29th October 2009 at about 7:35 p.m. a huge fire broke out at Sitapura (Jaipur) Terminal of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., which is still continuing on 11th day viz. on 8th November 2009.
2. It is learnt that on the fateful day the IOC Terminal was holding approximately 5,000.00 KL of Petrol, 4,000.00 KL of Kerosene and 41, 000.00 KL of HSD.
3. The main cause of fire was excessive leakage of Petrol from one of the tanks1. The issue on hand is whether the leakage was accidental or engineered to adjust shortage of Petrol?
4. It is also learnt that the body valve of the tank in question could not be operated from control room2, therefore, it required manual operation.
5. At about 4:00 p.m. while (mis) handling the hammer and blind valve, the body valve was deliberately opened to check how much leakage would take place. However, the Petrol started gushing out of the hammer and blind valve as huge spray. The staffs that were there to operate the valves got completely drenched, panicked and rushed away.3
6. Mr. Ashok Gupta was one of the persons present at the site and allegedly fainted. It is reported that Mr. Gurdev Singh a BPCL officer rescued Mr. Ashok Gupta and rushed him to Gopinath Hospital4. If Mr. Gurdev Singh and Mr. Ashok Gupta did not try to rescue MR. RAM NIWAS AND KRIPARAM MEENA (may be because MR. RAM NIWAS AND KRIPARAM MEENA knew too much) both of them are guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. It defies common sense logic that three persons receiving similar injuries in single incident, the two are reduced to ashes and one is able to save his life with the help received from BPCL Officer. I am sure MR. RAM NIWAS AND KRIPARAM MEENA could be rushed to the hospital, if the IOC staffs wanted to save them.
7. It is also learnt that by the time Senior IOC officials reached the spot the dyke wall enclosure was half full with Petrol. The petrol was still gushing out of the hammer and blind valve, and since the control room system to monitor body valve was deliberately failed the only way in which further leakage could be stopped was, if someone risking his life had reached body valve and closed it5.
8. Apprehending a fire accident as per safety procedures, and preventive step, the sprinkler system of all the other storage tanks should have been started; evacuation of product from storage tanks should have started. (NOT DONE)6
9. The specification of Petrol given in Annexure ‘A’ would show that even if the ambient temperature were 750C minimum 10% Petrol would evaporate7. Therefore, such a huge build up of petrol fumes is not possible when the maximum day temperatures are around 300C. Any prudent person would know that such a huge build up of fumes would take at least 3-4 hours to build up.
10. It is a practice among IOC staffs getting patronage of the higher management to siphon off product and show leakages to adjust it. The example of Bathinda Terminal is given in Annexure ‘B’. CBI investigates another case of HPC and IOC Terminals at Jaipur. Press reports suggest that IOC admitted a shortage of 130 KL of Petrol at Jaipur Terminal. There was another case of siphoning HSD tankers from IOC Jaipur Depot in which few transporters have been convicted by CBI court. In this murky backdrop, the Terminal Manager Mr. K. S. Kanoujiya had left the terminal and allegedly he was in a Gym when the ‘news’ about the leakage was passed on to him. What was he doing in a gym when the leakage was taking place?8 If the leakage had not started at 4:00 p.m. how could ½ of the dyke wall area be filled with product in few minutes? Moreover in few minutes such high-density fumes cannot be formed and spread to cause nausea in the neighbouring hotels and Industry. The intensity of the explosion and damage caused by it all around shows that a very large quantity of Petrol had evaporated from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., spread to the neighbouring Industries and Showrooms when some light ignited outside the licensed area might have caused explosion. The officers on duty (in the absence of Mr. K. S. Kanoujiya) through their inept reporting and handling of situation had put the lives of officers of civil administration also in danger who I understand had a providential escape.
11. Mr. Murli Deora and Mr. Sarthak Behuria who are allegedly close friends and Bridge (Card Game) partners came together not to show any sympathy but to cover the tracks so that the investigation does not lead to catching of THE BIG FISH. The Police and Administration obliged by declaring 5 Km Zone as no entry for the citizens and then IG Range I started shouting from rooftops that no FIR is registered therefore police is helpless in doing anything against the culprits of this great tragedy. It is a case of clear dereliction of duty on the part of IG Jaipur Range I, SP (East) and SHO Sanganer that they registered no FIR in violation of section 39 (1) (v) of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The section 39 (1) (v), is reproduced below;
“Public to give information of certain offences. - (1) Every person, aware of the commission of, or of the intention of any other person to commit, any offence punishable under any of the following sections of the Indian Penal Code,(45 of 1860) namely:-
…..
(v) Sections 302, 303 and 304 (that is to say, offences affecting life);
…..
……shall, in the absence of any reasonable excuse, the burden of proving which excuse shall lie upon the person so aware, forthwith give information to the nearest Magistrate or police officer of such commission or intention.” [Emphasis provided]
12. My FIR dated 1st November 2009 filed through email was not seen by DG Rajasthan, IG Range I and SP (East) for good 36 hours. The SHO Bajaj Nagar refused to register FIR and instead directed me to go to Sanganer Sadar. The IG Range I questioned my locus standii to lodge the FIR. It was only after dogged efforts that at 12:05 p.m. the SP (East) accepted the copy of FIR under acknowledgement but without giving FIR number. I was told that SHO Sanganer Sadar would give FIR number.
13. Thereafter, apparently IOC, Police and Genus Overseas in a pre-planned manner registered FIR 241/09 at 21:00 hours on 2/11/09 and flashed the News to the print and electronic media about this FIR.
14. Despite my persistent follow up and several assurances by SHO (Sanganer Sadar) no FIR number has been given to me, whereas on 3/11/09, Mr. Banwarilal Mehrada of BLM Institute, Sitapura lodged another FIR 242/09. All other FIR filed by the members of Sitapura Industries Association is being attached to these two FIR in a purely discretionary and dictatorial manner. If such is the attitude of Police Department at the stage of registering the FIR how one could expect them to do fair investigation.
15. On return to New Delhi Mr. Murli Deora announced a five men committee under the Chairmanship of one Mr. M. B. Lal a retired Chairman of HPCL. The members of the committee were handpicked who had either worked under Mr. Behuria or who were being beneficiary of the contracts awarded by IOC. No independent person was named in the committee. While the Statutory powers under the Petroleum Act, 1934 are vested in Explosives Department or a Magistrate, the Lal committee was welcomed by the State Government and was allowed to visit the accident site, take photographs, allowed to meet eye witnesses and take their (motivated) statements.
16. Even after 11 days of commission of the crime in which 11 people lost their lives, crore of Rupees worth of property has been damaged, thousands of workers lost their homes and livelihood, the environment in Jaipur, Delhi and Kota has been badly affected, the police has not made a single arrest. As soon as the FIR was filed IOC transferred the key accused Mr. K. S. Kanoujiya, relieved him immediately to facilitate his escape to Mumbai beyond the jurisdiction of Rajasthan Police.
17. Almost on expected lines, the media, both local as well as national, print as well as electronic are not interested in factual reporting instead are circulating planted stories by Indian Oil and have not questioned police actions as if they would be immune from such accidents, if ever, god forbid there is a repeat incident.
18. Under the influence of the State Government the Rajasthan Pollution Control Board remained in its deepest slumber as ever and issued no notice to IOC till I served a notice on them for initiating criminal proceedings against the RSPCB. The RSPCB has never ever in its existence (may be one or two exceptions) have held statutory 4 meetings (one meeting per quarter) while many of ex-chairpersons have become Chief Secretary of the state including Ms. Kushal Singh. No ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT or ENVIRONMENT AUDIT was ever undertaken by RSPCB for IOC Sitapura Terminal or any other terminal, which exist in the State.
19. While a number of Industries, social and philanthropic organisations had arranged shelter and relief camps IOC did not arrange a loaf of bread for the poorest and the youngest of children displaced due their callous negligence. Being an ex-employee of IOC, I am aware that during the visit of any General Manager or a director IOC would look forward to a symbolic presence of some IAS/IPS officer (even District Collector or a SP would do) and organize a dinner in five star hotel like Ram Bagh Palace or Jai Mahal Palace, serve hard liquor against rules/regulations/norms, get fictitious bills by increasing the number of guests to 1 ½ times of actual guests to spend anything in excess of couple of lakhs on a single party. Yet shamelessly the company did not organise any relief camp.
20. In yet another shameless act IOC handed over Rs.50.00 Crore cheque to Shri Ashok Gehlot glorifying the presentation as if it was giving some man-of-the match award in a cricket match with electronic media in attendance to cover the event. I wish the presenter of the Cheque, the Hon’ble Chief Minister, and the Media persons had spared a thought about those 11 dead persons and particularly Ram Niwas and Kriparam Meena, their mortal remains (skeletons) before celebrating giving/receiving of Rs. 50.00 Crore. IS ALL HUMAN SENSITIVITY DEAD?
MAHENDRA GAUR
Annexure ‘A’
IS- 2796-1971 SPECIFICATIONS OF MS (INDIA)
| Sr. No. | Characteristics | Test Method | 87 Octane | 93 Octane |
| 1 | Colour, Visual | - | Orange | Red |
| 2 | Copper Strip Corrosion for 3 hours at 50 0C | P-15 | Not worse than No.1 | |
| 3 | Density at 15 0C g/ml | P-16 | 0.730 | 0.735 |
| 4 | Distillation | | | |
| | Initial boiling point 0C | | 50 | 45 |
| | Recovery upto 75 0C,%v,min. | | 10 | 10 |
| | Recovery upto 125 0C,%v,min. | | 50 | 50 |
| | Recovery upto 180 0C,%v,min. | | 90 | 90 |
| | Final boiling point 0C, Max | | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | Octane Number (research Method) | P-27 | 87 | 93 |
| 6 | Oxidation stability in Minutes, min. | P-28 | 360 | 360 |
| 7 | Residue on evaporation, mg/100 ml, max. | P-29 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| 8 | Sulphur, % wt.max. | P-34 | 0.25 | 0.20 |
| 9 | Lead content, g/lmax | P-38 or 82 | 0.56 | 0.80 |
| 10 | Reid vapour pressure at 38 0Ckgf/cm2, max | P-39 | 0.70 | 0.70 |
Annexure ‘B’
OIL’S NOT WELL AT HPCL DEPOT IN BATHINDA
MAJOR PILFERAGE DETECTED; IN-HOUSE PROBE BEGINS; OFFICIALS TIGHT-LIPPED
RAJAY DEEP: TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE: BATHINDA, JULY 4
With the recent detection of three illegally modified oil tankers, Moga police has reportedly emerged as a whistle-blower in exposing a major possible scam of pilferage of petroleum products in the Bathinda depot of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
The development forced HPCL to send an in-house vigilance team that camped here for three days (July 1, 2 and 3) to check official data and record the statements of the staff working here. The team inspected all vehicles entering its Bathinda depot, which caters to a large number of the state petro-stations.
If sources in the HPCL are to be believed, the development can expose a major nexus between some senior officials of the HPCL and the private tanker operators, which might have caused loss worth crores to the HPCL. Meanwhile, all HPCL officials have been directed to keep the media away to avoid unwanted publicity.
After a daylong investigation, this correspondent came to know that the matter came to light after the Moga police took up the matter with the HPCL authorities.
As per the details available, acting upon a tip-off, the CIA staff, Moga, intercepted an oil tanker (PB05F-9597) from Dharamkot on June 24 and found it to be illegally modified, having a ‘hidden’ storage chamber of hundreds of litres capacity, meant for pilfering fuel from the depot. Acting swiftly, police raided the tanker owner’s house in Vada Dahaka (Faridkot) and found two more tankers loaded with fuel, parked there.
The police arrested Yadwinder Singh, his son Rana Singh and a driver Prem Singh and sent them to judicial custody. Two trucks bearing numbers PB04C-9832 and PB04C-9816, loaded with 7000 and 1000 litres of fuel, respectively, were also taken into custody.
As the accused had been plying their trucks in the contract freight of the HPCL, Bathinda depot, police informed its officials, along with providing another list of various suspected tankers, believed to be pilfering fuel from the HPCL depot.
Since that day, on the orders of senior regional officials, an investigation was started at the Bathinda depot, during which five vehicles were traced to have illegal modifications. Confirming the development, CIA staff of the Moga police informed that their team visited Bathinda depot about three days back, when they found four detected tankers parked there, bearing numbers as RJ 31 GA-0566, PB 11D-4787, PB 05G- 9715 and one PB03S-7733, which after the modification, had got a fresh coat of paint.
“All this is an outcome of our active intelligence, as we provided a long list of such modified vehicles to the officials of the HPCL,” claimed Satnam Singh, in-charge of the CIA staff, Moga.
Suspecting a nexus prevailing at the Bathinda depot, Satnam Singh said, “During our visit to HPCL’s Bathinda depot, we were shocked to find that in such a huge oil depot, fuel was being calibrated with a manual system and the electronic digital meters were lying un-operational. We have sought many details from the depot officials, which we are yet to receive.”
It has also been informed that during the ongoing investigations, the chief of HPCL Bathinda depot, D. K. Gupta went on leave, which has also provided grist to rumour mills. Some tanker drivers, awaiting their turn to get fuel, waiting outside the depot, said, “It was an usual practice here as mischievous elements, in connivance with depot officials, used to get ‘extra’ fuel filled in the hidden chamber and sold it in the market.”
When contacted, the officiating in-charge of HPCL, Bathinda depot, B. S. Dahia said, “I have no role in it. I can not utter a single word as it can go against my job.” But he confirmed the visit of vigilance sleuths and the number of detected tankers. Senior regional manager of the HPCL, Amit Mehra, talking over the phone, parried the queries saying, “I do not have exact information as I am out of the state.”
Talking over the phone, chief manager, vigilance branch of the HPCL, Manoj Sharma, who led the inspection team here, said, “We have been carrying a detailed inspection. Till we record the statement the chief of Bathinda depot, D. K. Gupta, we can’t say anything.” He refused to comment further.
1 The investigating agencies must find out whether the leakage was accidental or engineered to adjust the difference between the book stock and physical inventory. It is alleged that as against a shortage of 130 KL already in the knowledge of IOC management, there still was unaccounted difference of 220 KL petrol. The total shortage of Petrol was 350 KL.
2 If the body valve could be operated from the control room there was no need for anyone to go near the body valve to close the valve. To stop the down stream leakage the only action required was to close the body valve.
3 If the persons concerned in the same reflex action had closed the body valve the leakage would have stopped. However, it would have exposed the tampering of hammer and blind valve. Possibly they were looking for the guidance of the officials who had asked them to engineer the leakage.
4 Why Mr. Gurdev Singh rescued only Mr. Ashok Gupta and not Mr. Ramniwas and Mr. Kriparam. How did Mr. Gurdev Singh come to know of accident? Why Mr. Gurdev Singh did not sound red alert immediately? If Mr. Gurdev Singh was present next to Mr. Gupta, why he did not call for reinforcement to save Mr. Ramniwas and Mr. Kriparam. If Mr. Gurdev Singh was in BPCL Terminal, and came rushing from across the road, what was IOC’s staff and FIRE FIGHTIN TEAM doing? As per TOI published on 02/11/2009, Quote “The bodies recovered on Sunday were of IOC employees Ram Niwas and Kriparam Meena and that of Kishan Singh Dhakad, an employee of the adjoining Zenus Overseas Limited, an electronic firm.” Unquote
5 The dyke wall has capacity to hold the entire quantity of the petrol even if a full tank develops leakage. The preventive measures to be taken at this stage were, if it was not possible to stop leakage by closing the body valve, (a) cover the Petrol in the dyke wall with foam or DCP to the extent possible so that evaporation of petrol could be minimised and also to cut off supply of oxygen, and (b) evacuate the storage tank by transferring product to other tanks, (c) evacuate the dyke wall product by transferring it into Tank Lorries, by deploying pump mounted Tank Lorries.
6 It is absolutely clear from the sequence of events that the terminal neither had DCP or Foam, or Water for sprinkler system. Obviously the funds sanctioned for purchase and maintenance of these utilities were also siphoned off.
7 The recovery of Petrol on distillation at 750C is 10% v/v minimum. Although there is no upper limit for evaporation, but with the shortage of LPG the lighter ends in Petrol would be as close to specification level as possible. Moreover because of lower ambient temperatures the vapour would draw latent heat of evaporation from the product itself, thereby cooling the product to prevent further vaporisation and such huge build up could take place, if and only if, the product has been leaking for many hours.
8 Mr. K. S. Kanoujiya, Terminal Manager seems to have deliberately kept himself away from the scene of incident. As an occupier of the Terminal he was supposed to inform the nearest Magistrate, Police Station, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization, Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, Fire Brigade, Civil Administration about the imminent danger arising out of leakage of Petrol. On the contrary as per FIR filed by M/s Ayush Hospitality and Health Services (P) Ltd. they informed police control room at 6:45 about imminent danger from IOC Sitapura Depot. The SHO Sanganer did not register the FIR filed on 01/11/2009 at 2:20 p.m. by M/s Ayush Hospitality and Health Services (P) Ltd. The SHO has selectively registered some FIR, which have been filed by influential persons, such as FIR 241/09 (at 21:00 hours on 2/11/09) by Prit Pal Singh of Genus Overseas, and FIR 242/09 (at 10:30 hours on 03/11/09) by Mr. Banwarilal Mehrada of BLM Institute, Sitapura. My FIR registered at 1:17 a.m. on 1/11/09 and signed copy delivered to SP (East) at 12:05 p.m. on 2/11/09 has been clubbed with subsequent FIR 241/09.
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