Pune police have registered a case against three people after allegedly unauthorised domestic LPG refilling was found in Mundhwa village, where gas was being transferred from filled household cylinders into empty cylinders for sale. Police said the operation created a risk of leakage, fire and explosion in a residential area.
The accused have been identified as Bhupendrapratap Sundar Singh, 38, Mankaram Sukhram Siyak, 39, and Mahendra Baburam Khichad, 19. According to police information, the three had arranged the refilling activity in Mundhwa for financial gain without permission from the relevant department.
The gas was allegedly extracted from filled domestic cylinders through pipes and transferred into empty cylinders. Police said the activity was being carried out without the required safety measures for handling LPG. The absence of authorisation and safety arrangements raised concerns about the possible impact of a leak on people living and working in the surrounding area.
Police received information about the activity at around 9.30 am on October 7. A subsequent inspection found that gas was being removed from one cylinder and filled into another without authorisation, according to the report. The operation was not described as an approved LPG distribution or refilling facility.
The case was registered at Mundhwa police station on the complaint of police employee Ekta Baburao Salunke. Police Sub-Inspector Smita Wasnik is conducting the investigation. The police have not disclosed in the supplied report the quantity of LPG involved, the number of cylinders seized or the specific legal sections invoked.
Unauthorised LPG transfer is a neighbourhood-level safety issue because domestic cylinders are being handled outside the controlled systems used by licensed distributors. In this case, police said the alleged operation was located in Mundhwa village and that a leakage could have caused a fire or explosion, potentially placing nearby residents at risk. The supplied report does not state whether anyone was injured or whether a fire occurred.
The action also highlights the enforcement challenge around informal fuel handling in rapidly urbanising parts of Pune. Mundhwa has a mix of residential settlements, commercial activity and expanding urban development, making the safe storage and movement of combustible material an important municipal and public-safety concern. The police information, however, does not establish how long the alleged refilling activity had been operating or how many customers it served.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Jeevan Benival said police were monitoring such illegal gas-refilling activities in the city and appealed to citizens to inform the police immediately if they found unauthorised cylinder refilling. He also said a meeting of all gas dealers in the city would be held and that necessary instructions would be issued.
The next steps are the investigation by Mundhwa police and the proposed meeting with Pune’s gas dealers. Further details about the cylinders, the alleged sales network and the legal action will depend on the findings of the investigation.
