Police raid bottling plant of Koshi Gas

District Administration Office (DAO) Nawalparasi on Monday raided bottling plant of Koshi Gas in Gaidakot of Nawalparasi after it found underweight Koshi Gas cylinders in the market. During market inspection on Sunday, police had found that Koshi Gas cylinders distributed by Sirjana Enterprises in Kawasoti were weighing about 3 kg less than the standard weight of 14.2 kg.

“We conducted raid at Koshi Gas on Monday. Though we found some cylinders weighing less than the standard weight, we couldn´t find strong evidence to show that the bottling plant itself was involved in the wrongdoing,” Keshab Ghimire, CDO of Nawalparasi, told Republica. “We, however, found that cylinders circulated by the company were very old.” Locals had demanded that the local administration conduct raid on Sunday itself. “Though the company had been found cheating consumers, DAO Nawalparasi and police made delay in conducting the raid,” Hari Dahal, a local of Kawasoti, said. “The company got ample time to cover its wrongdoings.” Kawasoti locals on the day held protest against the DAO arguing that the local administration deliberately delayed investigation against Koshi Gas. They also claimed that the company hid underweight cylinders in the night after it knew that DAO was conducting raid on Monday. Police had inspected LPG cylinders at Sirjana Enterprises on Sunday after locals filed complaint against the LPG dealer suspecting it of distributing underweight cylinders. All the 18 cylinders at the firm weighed by the police were found underweight. Meanwhile, police have taken Chhatra Prasad Luintel and Nandu Sharm of Koshi Gas and Ram Krishna Pudasaini of Sirjana Enterprises for further investigation.