Vehicle Fires, Preliminary Evidence Of Garut Police Disclosing Cases Of Subsidized Fuel Abuse

GARUT - The Garut Police revealed a case of abuse of transportation and purchasing subsidized fuel (BBM) by modifying vehicles in the Samarang area, Garut Regency, West Java. "It was found that the vehicle had been modified and then contained jerry cans that had been filled with fuel, we have secured everything," said Garut Police Chief AKBP Wirdhanto Hadicaksono during a press conference on the disclosure of the case of misuse of fuel transportation on Jalan Pasirwangi, Garut, Saturday, September 3. He said the disclosure of the case began with a report of a mini bus vehicle of the Carry type that caught fire on the edge of Jalan Raya Samararang on August 2, 2022. The police and firefighters, according to the Police, immediately extinguished the fire scene and found a crime of misuse of fuel transportation. "The car came from a Samarang regional gas station that had just filled the road to the location of the short circuit and caught fire," he said. He revealed that the results of the investigation revealed that the car had been modified by making pipelines to facilitate the collection of fuel from the vehicle tank. The Carry type car, said the Police Chief, operates several times by transporting fuel to gas stations, then the newly purchased BBM is removed from a special channel to jerry can, then the car returns to the gas station to buy fuel again. "The person concerned has modified the car three months ago," he said. The police chief said that the action was uncovered after the car caught and the driver with the initials AA (42) was finally named a suspect as a fire victim and was treated at the hospital. "In that case, the fire victim became the perpetrator of the crime of abusing the transportation of fuel, the perpetrator is still taking care of the road because some of his body caught fire," he said.

The police chief revealed that the purchase of fuel by the suspect was used to sell retail at his mini gas station on Jalan Pasirwangi, whose place has now been confiscated. The suspect, said the Police Chief, usually sells the fuel to consumers for Rp. 8,650 per liter or earns a profit of Rp. 1,000 per liter from the fuel he bought at gas stations. "The subsidized BBM will be resold to Pasirwangi, he has a mini gas station, it can be sold back to the public, it can benefit from Rp. 4 to Rp. 5 million per month," said the Police Chief. In that case, the police applied Article 55 of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 22 of 2001 concerning Oil and Gas Earth as amended by Article 40 of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation with a penalty of 6 years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp. 60 billion.