Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s convoy ran into trouble on Thursday after all 19 vehicles in it broke down one after the other. The SUVs in the convoy were on way to Ratlam as the CM is scheduled to attend an event on Friday. The vehicles began slowing down and jerking one after the other and the drivers were forced to push them off road.
Identifying that the vehicles were giving trouble, the authorities scrambled to arrange for a replacement fleet, while suspecting of diesel adulteration at a local pump, where all the SUVs had stopped for refueling.
Initially, one or two vehicles gave trouble but soon all of them stopped, said Shubham Verma, a driver from convoy. “We got 350 litres filled into the vehicles from a local petrol pump. When we confronted the staff, they denied of any contamination but a local resident showed us a bottle filled from the same pump, which had layers of diesel and water clearly visible.”
After the vehicles in the convoy gave trouble, the food and civil supplies department collected samples and confirmed the presence of water in the diesel supplied by the station.
The food department officer said that they were investigating the matter. “We are investigating the matter. We cannot tell the exact amount of water being mixed with diesel. We are checking the stock and submit a detailed report to the Ratlam collector.”
The petrol pump was sealed. Officials arranged a replacement
