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New Delhi: Mahesh Shelke, a Manager (Retail Sales) with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), was stabbed to death on October 6 while taking over a shut IOC retail outlet in Maharashtra's Hingoli district. A First Information Report (FIR) accessed by PSU Watch names the dealer's son, Umesh Pandvir, as the man who attacked him with a dagger. The police have formed a team to trace and arrest him.
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Shelke, 37, was a resident of Nanded and served as field officer for IOC's Nanded North Retail Sales Area. Eight months earlier, on February 13, he had been ranked first among IOC's field officers across India, sources told PSU Watch.
According to the FIR, the attack took place between about 4 pm and 4.15 pm on the premises of Sai Umesh Petrol Pump at Chondi Station, about 10 km west of Kurunda police station.
Sai Umesh Petrol Pump at Chondi Station, run by dealer Saheb Sopanrao Pandvir, had been shut since February this year, said the FIR reviewed by PSU Watch. Indian Oil had repeatedly directed the dealer to run it in line with the company's rules. When operations were not resumed, the company issued Pandvir formal notices. However, the pump continued to remain shut.
On the company's orders, Gullakuntla Maniprasad, a senior manager at Indian Oil who oversaw sales in the Nanded, Latur, Parbhani and Hingoli divisions, set out to take control of the outlet. Shelke accompanied him.
Maniprasad and Shelke reached the outlet at about 2.30 pm in the latter's car. The two were accompanied by a contract worker. Neither the dealer nor his son were present at the time, and the pump and its office were both closed. When the senior manager called the dealer, a woman answered and said she was his wife. She told him the dealer was ill and admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad.
Four more Indian Oil representatives joined the team at the site, and together they inspected the pump and its machinery and prepared a report. A little later, a woman arrived in a car with an unidentified man, said the FIR. She introduced herself as the dealer's wife and asked how the company could close their pump. According to the FIR, she then obstructed the team's work, shouted and hurled abuse.
The team was preparing to leave around 4 pm when Umesh Pandvir, the son of Saheb Sopanrao Pandvir, rode up on a motorcycle with two young men. He showed the officials some documents. Shelke told him he would speak to his father, and the team began to leave. At that point, the FIR said, Umesh attacked Shelke on the back and head with a dagger he was carrying, while the two young men with him struck Shelke on the shoulders and chest. The woman threw a stone at Maniprasad. Shouting that Shelke must not leave alive, the attackers brought him to the ground, and Umesh stabbed him repeatedly in the neck, stomach and face.
Maniprasad and the contract worker ran towards Shelke, shouting, but were blocked. After being threatened by the woman and the man accompanying her that they would be attacked too, the two men could not reach Shelke even as Umesh kept stabbing him after he fell. They got into the car and drove towards the road while Maniprasad tried to call the 112 emergency number. Umesh and his two companions chased the car on their motorcycle, brandishing daggers.
Once they had shaken off their pursuers, Maniprasad and the contract worker returned to the outlet and later called Shelke's relatives. Police reached the spot shortly afterwards and found Shelke covered in blood and grievously injured. He was taken by ambulance to Basmat, where the officials who followed him to the hospital learnt that he had died.
"The altercation escalated within minutes and Shelke was stabbed several times," a source told PSU Watch. The FIR said that the incident took place between 4-4.15 pm.
Kurunda police registered the FIR on October 7 on Maniprasad's complaint. Five accused have been named in the report. They are Umesh Saheb Pandvir; the dealer's wife, whose name is not recorded; an unidentified man aged between 35 and 45 who wore dark glasses and had short hair; and two unidentified young men aged about 20 and 21, one in a white shirt and the other in a red shirt.
Maniprasad has alleged that the group attacked Shelke with the intent to kill. According to the complaint, they had repeatedly quarrelled with Shelke over why the outlet under their control was being handed to someone else to run.
The Indian Oil Officers' Association (IOOA), a registered union of Indian Oil officers, wrote to the PSU's Director (HR) on Wednesday to place on record "its strongest protest" over Shelke's death. The association said it had raised the safety of field officers with the management twice before, on September 26, 2023, and on March 16 this year. Shelke's death, it said, "raises serious questions regarding the adequacy of existing security arrangements and risk-assessment mechanisms."
IOOA has demanded time-bound action on comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs), mandatory risk assessment and police or security support for sensitive assignments. It also wants institutional legal support for officers, stronger security at vulnerable locations and better facilities at remote and difficult postings. If the management does not act, officers will wear black badges on October 23 and hold gate meetings at locations from October 24 to 29. From October 30, they will work to rule. The association said the letter serves as formal notice of protest with 15 days' prior intimation. Its president Kumar Gaurav and general secretary Anoop Singh are among the office-bearers who signed it.
As a way to display solidarity, Indian Oil officers across the country will wear black ribbons as a mark of mourning, observe two minutes of silence and hold a candle march after office hours on Wednesday.
The incident has caused widespread outrage among employees of state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) because it is not the first time such an attack has taken place. In a March letter addressed to the IOC chairman, the IOOA described a recent attack in which a field officer of IOC's Bareilly Divisional Office had his car shot at while on duty. It also cited an incident at a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) plant in Uttar Pradesh where a disgruntled vendor shot dead two senior officers inside the premises. Officers were being left to file FIRs in their individual capacity, the letter said, which exposed them to further risk. The officers' association has asked IOC to handle such cases institutionally, frame an SOP for threats and assaults, and set guidelines for legal and administrative support.
The National Confederation of Officers' Associations (NCOA), a forum of executives of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Its secretary general, Anilkumar G, signed the letter, and copies went to the Union Home Minister and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister.
The confederation asked for "a swift, time-bound and transparent investigation" into the killing, and for "accountability wherever any lapse is established." It also called for "a comprehensive review of safety protocols for officers undertaking sensitive field duties such as inspection, enforcement, sealing and takeover operations." It wanted legal proceedings to move quickly, and it sought institutional support for Shelke's family.
NCOA said its appeal was not about money. "This representation is not about monetary collection or compensation," the letter said. "No amount of money can replace a husband, father or son." What the confederation wanted, it said, was "justice, dignity, safety and meaningful institutional change."
"Thousands of public servants report to the field every day to keep essential services functioning," NCOA wrote. "They have a duty to serve, but they also have a right to return home safely." Justice could not bring Shelke back, the confederation said. "But justice can ensure that his death is not forgotten."
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on X that Shelke had been attacked with a sharp weapon while part of a team taking over an IOC retail outlet in Hingoli district. "I strongly condemn this heinous and unacceptable act of violence," Puri said. He said the matter had been taken up with the senior-most officials of the Maharashtra government and police "to ensure swift and strict action against those responsible, in accordance with law." The ministry and IOC, he said, would extend all possible support to Shelke's family. "The safety, dignity and security of our energy-sector personnel, who work tirelessly to serve the nation, remain paramount," Puri added.
In its own statement on X, Indian Oil described Shelke as "a bright and promising Sales Officer" and "a dedicated professional whose commitment and sincerity had earned him the respect of his colleagues." His death, the company said, was "an irreparable loss to his family and a profound loss to the Indian Oil family." IOC said it was extending all possible support to his family and had taken up the matter with the authorities concerned.
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Shelke's killing comes almost 21 years after S Manjunath, a 27-year-old Indian Oil sales officer, was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri. Manjunath had inspected a petrol pump there and found irregularities. As the Supreme Court's record of the case sets out, IOC then suspended sales and supplies to the outlet. Manjunath went back to inspect the pump on November 19, 2005, and his body was found the next day. IOC's archive records that he was killed after he exposed an alleged racket involving corruption and fuel adulteration. His case has since been cited as an example of the risks faced by officials on sensitive field duties such as inspection, enforcement, sealing and takeover operations.
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