Police on Thursday filed cases against two government officials, along with petrol pump owners, on the charge of their involvement in black-marketeering and fraud.

On behalf of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, the government attorney filed the case in Kathmandu District Court seeking five-year prison term against Rabin Sharma, chief of Nepal Oil Corporation’s Thankot depot and Ram Adhar Shah, joint secretary at the Ministry of Environment, along with seven petrol pump owners.

Sharma has been charged with fraud and black-marketeering, while Shah has been charged with fraud and abetting “wicked deeds”.

Cases have also been filed against seven petrol pump owners who between them operate 13 fuel stations for black-marketeering and fraud. Police have also

sought Rs3.1 million in compensation from the seven persons. Cases have also been filed against six other pump owners who are at large.

The court will begin recording statements from the accused on Friday.

Police had been investigating black-marketeering and tampering of the fuel meter

at filling stations for the past 25 days. Sharma and Shah were arrested on the basis of statements from the accused pump owners.   

During interrogation, Sharma revealed that he had taken bribes between Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 from each tanker that distributed fuel to filling stations in the Valley. As the market faced fuel shortages after the blockade, Sharma was involved in distributing less amount of fuel to petrol pumps, while the rest was sold at higher prices in black market, according to police.

Shah was involved in introducing a fuel meter tampering technology. During his tenure as the chief of Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, he facilitated the installation of the meter-tampering device at petrol pumps and used to get cut for his illicit services. Sharma and Shah had been blackmailing petrol pump owners, police said.

Shah has confessed to have brought in Nashim Siddiqui, a technician from the Indian state of Bihar, to get the tampering device installed at petrol pumps in the Valley. Police have already arrested Siddiqui.