Police officers raided a factory in Banjar Kukub hamlet, Perean Tengah village, Baturiti sub-district, Tabanan district that Agus had used to run his illegal LPG injection business on early Saturday.
"We have monitored the suspect's activities for a month. After getting sufficient evidence and clues, we deployed a group of policemen to raid the place," Chief of Tabanan police precinct Adjunct Senior Commissioner AA Made Sudana said here Saturday.
Agus and his workers allegedly removed the LPG volume from the three kilogram gas canisters to the 12 and 50 kilogram typed cylinders for his own profits inside his factory, he said.
The police found equipment that the suspects often used to remove the three-kilogram LPG canisters, such as pipes and the three, 12 and 50 kilogram typed cylinders, he said.
Local residents were not aware of Agus's illegal LPG injection activities because he and his workers did that inside the locked factory at different time tables.
"They can work in the morning or in the afternoon and evening behind closed door," he said.
AA Made Sudana said the suspects were threatened with six years in jail and fine of Rp60 billion if the court found them guilty.
Since the government began implementing its kerosene-to-LPG conversion plan in 2007, at least 45 million packages of gas stoves and three-kilogram gas cylinders have been distributed to the people.
Since then, LPG canister explosions had increased in various parts of Indonesia. One of the causes was related to gas canister whose volume might have been removed and injected illegally.
In response to the deadly gas canister blasts occurring in various parts of Indonesia over the past months, the government had promised to withdraw all damaged and poor quality gas canisters.
By July 2010, the government had reportedly taken a million LPG canisters from the market to be replaced with good ones.
Besides that, the government was also committed to conducting door-to-door and community-to-community familiarization programs so that gas stove users would understand the safest way of using LPG.
In dealing with the problem, President Yudhoyono had proposed that the LPG aroma be made more smelly to enable gas stove users to detect leaking LPG cylinders.
President Yudhoyono also underlined the importance of public awareness campaigns by issuing "secure gas use" posters. (*)
: Nyoman Budhiana
COPYRIGHT © ANTARA 2026
Dilarang keras mengambil konten, melakukan crawling atau pengindeksan otomatis untuk AI di situs web ini tanpa izin tertulis dari Kantor Berita ANTARA.
