The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has unearthed an 'in-house CNG filling station' in Lahore's Gulshan-e-Ravi area on Saturday. An FIA team headed by SNGPL Deputy Chief Engineer Bilal Asghar raided Bungalow 411-B in Gulshan Ravi area and busted an illegal set-up of CNG filling station which was established without permission of the SNGPL and the OGRA.
FIA Deputy Director Corporate Crime Circle (CCC) Lahore Jamil Ahmed Mayo said the CNG station was being run through bypassing the main sui-gas line. He said the set-up was established in a house next to a private school, endangering lives of hundreds of innocent students.
"The CNG set-up was allegedly being run by a pilot identified as Ata-ur-Rehman," he said, adding that the agency has also taken into custody two people working on the station while other precious equipments were also seized. He added that the accused have caused losses of millions of rupees to the national kitty.
The deputy director said the owner of the house had approached local police several times for vacating his house from Ata-ur-Rehman. The police, however, remained reluctant to initiate action against the accused because of his influence and contacts, he added. He said officials of both the departments, FIA and SNGPL, sealed direct bypass which was supplying gas to the compressed cylinders for onward filling of commercial transportation.
"The set-up was established under sheer violation of public safety rules as it was situated in a highly-congested area," Deputy Director Jamil Mayo said, adding the legal requirements for establishing a CNG station needs hectic efforts as the potential person has to obtain non-objection certificate (NOC) from over a dozen of departments, including explosive department.
He said the gas was being supplied illegally through a substandard station gas, adding that timely action by the agency has thwarted a major catastrophic. He added that an FIR (No. 162/2017) under section 462-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has been registered against Ata-ur-Rehman with the FIA Corporate Crime Circle (CCC) Lahore while the accused was yet to be arrested till filing of this report.
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