A division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice VM Velumani gave the direction after taking stock of the submission made by PC Thenmozhi, Additional Commissioner, Central Crime branch (CCB) on behalf of the Commissioner of Police (CoP), Chennai, in this regard.

 The bench sought the report pointing out that the malice should have spread to other districts in the State if such outlets could function in Chennai police limits with fake NOCs.

 As per the submission, since 2014 till date, the CoP has issued 140 NOCs for various petroleum outlets. But during the said period, the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) issued 209 licences to petroleum outlets within the city police limits.

 Later, it was found that 67 petroleum outlets for which PESO had issued licences were functioning with fake police NOCs.

 Of them, 61 outlets are in Greater Chennai Police limits while 6 outlets are in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts. Based on this, CCB registered a case and the investigation is ongoing. The detainee, KL Sivakumar, is running seven petroleum outlets, of which five are in the name of Confidence Petroleum Indian Pvt Ltd, and were functioning on fake NOCs, the submission said, while attributing the delay in investigation to the prevailing pandemic situation.