Avadi police unearth spurious oil making unit in Sholavaram

CHENNAI: The Avadi police on Thursday unearthed a spurious oil making unit during an inspection at Sholavaram and arrested two managers and five migrant workers working there. The police seized 2.70 lakh litres of spurious oil, which was going to be exported to Mumbai, from the godown.

According to the police, the owner of the unit, Thulasi Singh Raj, was operating it from Mumbai and is absconding. The accused received crude oil from the containers that reached the port and sold the adulterated lubrication oil to several companies wholesale across Tamil Nadu. A huge consignment is also being sent to Mumbai, police noted.

The Sholavaram police inspector B S Ananda Kumar found two huge containers each weighing 85,000 litres buried underground, two trucks with capacity of 25,000 litres each, and 50 cans with 1000 litres capacity during an inspection at Nallur village in Sholavaram. The cops seized 2.70 litres of lubrication oil worth more than Rs 1 crore and sent to the lab of the Civil Supplies CID.

Police said that the containers, trucks, and cans were filled with the adulterated oil which was ready to be transported to Mumbai and other chemical companies in the state. Since the consignment was huge, the case has been transferred to the Civil Supplies CID (CS-CID). Meanwhile, the company claimed that it has registration and licence to import crude oil from the port.

“However, we suspect that they adulterated the oil at the unit in Sholavaram. Samples have been sent to the lab,” said the police.

The accused had not received fire safety certification for the one acre of land and police said a mishap would have resulted in loss of lives of nearby residents. The company was registered to manufacture lubricated oil that forms base for transmission fluid for motor vehicles and several other chemical components. While the flammability of the lubricated oil is low, police said, the oil burns with high volatility.

Two managers, S Ashok, 29 and S Mukesh Kumar, 26, from Uttar Pradesh along with truck drivers K Krishnamoorthy, 47, S Udhayaraj, 48 and five other migrant workers from UP were arrested by the police.