brand logo

Confiscated fuel still with Police, not returned to CPC

28 Jul 2022

  • Police awaiting legal process to hand over hoarded stocks
  • IGP to reward raiding cops who nab fuel hoarders
BY Safrah Fazal Illegally hoarded stocks of fuel seized through Police raids over the past few months are yet to be returned to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), The Morning learnt. When contacted by The Morning yesterday (27) to inquire into the reasons for this, Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa said that samples of the seized fuel stocks will first be produced in court, where court orders will be obtained to send the samples for testing.  “With the court orders, the samples will be taken to the CPC for testing. Once the reports are obtained, we will present them to the courts and obtain court orders to return the stocks to the CPC,” he said, adding that the sample testing is conducted as a routine procedure to obtain a report proving that it is indeed fuel, and to determine the type of fuel. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne has decided to provide cash rewards of up to Rs. 300,000 to Police officers who seize stocks of illegally hoarded diesel or petrol. Accordingly, officers who seize up to 100 litres will receive Rs. 50,000, officers who seize between 100-500 litres will receive Rs. 200,000, and those who seize between 500-1,000 litres will receive Rs. 300,000. The cash reward for Police officers who seize more than 1,000 litres of diesel and petrol will be decided by the Police Headquarters. Only those who were part of the raid will qualify for the cash rewards. Following the shortage in foreign reserves and the subsequent challenge in procuring fuel, incidents of fuel being hoarded and sold at exorbitant rates in the black market are reported regularly from various parts of the island.


More News..