Thieves strike at a LPG godown in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri, decamp with 108 cylinders

Amid the ongoing crisis in West Asia that caused disruption in the cooking gas supply across India before the government stepped in to improve it, some unidentified burglars struck at Karuna Bharat Gas agency godown located on Makanpur road under Lakhimpur Kheri’s Palia Kotwali limits and decamped with 108 LPG cylinders on Friday night, police said on Saturday.

Jitendra Singh Parihar, deputy superintendent of police, Palia, confirmed that the police received a complaint about the theft at Palia Kotwali and that a probe into the incident is in progress.

Gas agency owner Amit Singh told HT that the burglary was discovered on Saturday morning when Ritesh, a gas agency employee, arrived there to open the godown and found the main gate forced open. Singh claimed that 270 refilled and 252 empty cooking gas cylinders were at his godown when the agency closed on Friday. He said 98 refilled and 10 empty cylinders were found stolen the next morning.

While concerns regarding disturbances in LPG supply chains across the globe have surged due to ongoing conflicts in West Asia, local authorities recently managed to streamline distribution across Lakhimpur Kheri district.

Earlier, on March 11, seven individuals were arrested in Jhansi for allegedly decamping with a LPG cylinder-laden truck from outside the Bharat Petroleum depot in the Sipri Bazar area there during the Holi festivities. Police had recovered all 524 stolen LPG cylinders worth over ₹17 lakh from them.