The IOC officer and a petrol pump owner are on the radar of the CBI.
An Indian Oil Corporation official and the owner of the company’s petrol pump in Maharashtra’s Pune district are under CBI’s scanner for attempting to extract a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh from a man who was allotted a petrol pump site by the comApany in September 2023 at village Pargaon on the Shingave to Manjarwadi state highway.
The bribe was allegedly demanded for issuing a Letter of Intent (LoI) to the new allottee, Yogesh Balasaheb Wagh, after removing “technical objections” related to the site where the new petrol pump was proposed to be built. One of the accused, Swapnil Agavane, the owner of Ghanasyam petrol pump, Bahul, allegedly acted as a conduit for the IOC sales officer Bhimraj Sonawane, who was supposed to issue the LoI or the formal go-ahead for the new allotment.
Unable to meet the bribe demand, Wagh, a resident of Ambegaon in Pune district, lodged a complaint with the probe agency. The CBI has now registered an FIR under provisions for offence punishable under Section 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (As amended in 2018).
Wagh alleged in his complaint that Agavane called him to his petrol pump on 15 December 2023 for uploading required documents where IOCL officer Sonawane was also present. The IOCL officer also checked the documents of the complainant and instructed Agavane to upload them online, which the latter did. “Later, the complainant paid the initial security deposit online and sent the receipt to Agavane and the IOCL official on WhatsApp,” said a CBI official.
Wagh said that three days later he received a communication from IOCL about a proposed visit of Land Evaluation Committee on 30 December, but on that day the committee did not visit. On 3 January 2024, Sonawane and Agavane visited the location and the former told Wagh that there were some technical objections related to the petrol pump site allotted to him. “Sonawane told him that there was a road and chowk near the said land offered for establishing new petrol pump which may create difficulty in issuing Letter of Intent (LoI),” the complaint said.
Wagh’s complaint said that later Swapnil Agavane telephonically called him and informed him that Sonawane had demanded Rs 3.5 lakh bribe for issuing Letter of Intent (LOl) after removing technical objections.
The CBI verified Wagh’s complaint and it was confirmed that a demand of undue advantage to influence a public servant by corrupt or illegal means was made and negotiated to Rs 2.5 lakh by Agavane, identified as a private person.
Questioning Agavane and Sonawane is likely to be taken up soon and call records of both may also be scanned to verify the sequence of events as claimed by Wagh, said an official.