In a major breakthrough, the Mahasamund police have arrested the absconding owner and director of Thakur Petrochemicals from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, in connection with the ₹1.5 crore LPG scam. The accused, identified as Santosh Singh Thakur and his son Sarthak Singh Thakur, had been evading arrest for over a month by frequently changing locations and shifting SIM cards.

A local court has remanded the duo to police custody after they were brought back to Chhattisgarh on a transit warrant. Investigating officials confirmed that the latest arrests bring the total number of individuals held in the case to six, with more high-profile arrests expected as the investigation reaches its final stages.

Multi-State Police Hunt Ends in Kolhapur

The father-son duo had managed to stay ahead of law enforcement by moving across multiple states. According to local police, tracking the fugitives required extensive technical surveillance. Cyber cells analyzed tower dump data across 11 cities, scrutinized call detail records (CDRs), and tracked vehicle movements at toll plazas and financial transactions.

Based on a definitive digital trail, four dedicated police teams were dispatched to different states. The breakthrough came when a team located and arrested the suspects from a hotel room in Kolhapur.

Suspended Food Officer Masterminded the Plot

The investigation reveals a deep-rooted nexus involving bureaucrats and local businessmen. Police sources stated that the entire operation was masterminded by the suspended Mahasamund District Food Officer, Ajay Yadav. Investigations indicate that Yadav utilized his official position to orchestrate the diversion of seized government property.

Pankaj Chandrakar, a local gas agency operator and political worker, allegedly acted as the primary coordinator, establishing links with buyers. Another businessman, Manish Choudhary, served as the mediator to negotiate financial terms between the various parties involved.

Seized Gas Disposed of via Fake Documents

The origin of the scam dates back to an enforcement action in the Singhoda police station area, where the Saraypali Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) caught six capsule trucks red-handed while gas was being pilfered from them. For safety reasons, the tankers were initially parked inside the Singhoda police station premises.

Subsequently, the administration handed over the safe custody of these tankers to the Food Department. Investigators revealed that Ajay Yadav used this opportunity to transfer the responsibility of securing the gas capsules to Thakur Petrochemicals’ facility in Urla, Abhanpur. Once the tankers reached the private facility, approximately 92 metric tonnes of LPG was illegally offloaded and sold in the open market using forged documents and cash memos to evade GST.

Financial Footprints and Profit Distribution

The police have established a clear paper trail regarding the illicit transactions, which total around ₹80 lakh out of an estimated market value of ₹1.5 crore. The initial demand by the perpetrators was ₹1.30 crore, but the deal was eventually struck at ₹90 lakh after week-long negotiations.

"The distribution of the scam proceeds was highly organized," an official privy to the probe stated. "Out of the collected amount, suspended officer Ajay Yadav received a lion's share of ₹50 lakh. Agency operator Pankaj Chandrakar took ₹20 lakh, while mediator Manish Choudhary received ₹10 lakh."

Further disclosures indicated that the physical exchange of cash took place at Chandrakar’s factory, 'Aastha Trolley', located in Paraswani village. Investigators are also looking into claims that certain food department officials accompanied Chandrakar in private vehicles during the execution of the logistics.

Facing Severe Criminal Charges

To give the illegal offloading a semblance of legitimacy, the accused prepared a fraudulent panchnama (site memo) at the Food Department office, naming co-conspirators as independent witnesses.

The Mahasamund police have registered a case under multiple stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, forgery, black marketing, and misappropriation of government property. The police are now planning a joint interrogation, confronting the freshly arrested owners of Thakur Petrochemicals with the already detained mastermind Ajay Yadav, manager Nikhil Vaishnav, and other intermediaries to unearth the full extent of the institutional fraud.