The 40-odd police officials and men executed the raids against a warrant issued by the Special Court (Essential Commodities Act) which is at present seized of the matter. The entire searches were videographed.

The high-profile president of Nagpur High Speed Diesel and Petrol Pump Dealers Association is facing charges of practicing fuel adulteration and negligence, causing death of an employee of his petrol pump at Khapri in a bid to siphon off fuel from one tanker to another on the evening of November 4. The two tankers were left completely damaged in the fire incident.

While one of the tankers belonged to Patil who is at present lodged in the Hingna policecustody, the ownership of the other one was in dispute after the Tulis disowned the same.

However, yesterday's raids have helped the police ascertain the ownership issue following the recovery of vehicle records from Bombay Garage, owned by Tuli, an authoritative police source told The Indian Express.

At yet another place -- Bombay Automobiles, a petrol pump near Pardi naka, also belonging to Tuli -- the police recovered samples of low density fuel besides, coming across a fuel stock which was in excess of available records, the source added. Some of the other places where the police action was carried out, included Hotel Skylark, Hotel Tuli International, Jaswant theatre and Patil's petrol pump near SFS School in the Sadar area.

Earlier, the investigating agency had applied for a court warrant to execute the raids and things started moving in a secretive manner after the warrant was granted.

In a related development, the single-judge bench of Justice J N Patel at the High Court here disposedoff the anticipatory bail pleas, filed by Tuli's two brothers -- Bachchidder and Inderjit -- and directed Bachchidder to surrender himself before the Hingna police.

The bench also directed the investigating agency to give a 72-hour prior notice to Inderjit in case he was required for the purpose of investigation.

In his order, Justice Patel observed that after examining the documents on record the court was prima facie satisfied that there was a case against Bachchidder alias Kukku, a partner in Tuli's business firms. The order also mentioned that the investigation agency was not yet clear about Inderjit's status and there was no material clearly showing his direct involvement.