: Two more rice millers in Karnal district were on Saturday booked after 9,000 bags of procured paddy were found missing from the stock of the two mills following raids by the chief minister’s flying squad.
A team of the chief minister’s flying squad on Friday conducted raids at various rice mills and grain markets in Assandh town of Karnal, three days after it detected a paddy procurement scam of around 75,000 quintals involving four rice millers in the district.
As per information, the flying squad raided BG Overseas, Shri Ram Rice Mill, Radhe Radhe Rice Mill and Green Valley rice mill on Friday.
Karnal superintendent of police Ganga Ram Punia said that Naveen Kumar, owner of BG overseas in Uplana village, has been booked under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Satish Kumar, owner of Sri Shyam rice mill in Rattak village of Karnal district has been booked under sections 420, 406, and 120-B of the IPC.
In his police complaint, assistant food and supplies officer Aman Kumar alleged that during the flying squad’s physical verification of the stock, it was found that the government procuring agency HAFED had deputed them to procure parmal paddy and they were allocated 66,925 gunny bags of paddy to be stored in BG Overseas rice mill during this procurement season. However, during the raid, around 4,000 bags of paddy were found missing from the stock of the rice mill.
Due to the huge stock stored in the mill, the actual quantity of short paddy could not be determined. Besides, the team also recovered around 4,000 bags of rice packed in sugar bags of a rice mill in Uttar Pradesh.
It is alleged that so far, the concerned rice mill had not started the milling and the government agency had also not issued the release order to the mill.
In the other case, the flying squad found 5,000 bags of paddy short in the stock of Sri Shyam Rice Mill. Also, the raiding team is suspecting the involvement of officials associated with the procurement operations.
This is the second incident reported in the district in the past four days as on October 12, the Karnal police registered FIRs against four rice millers and the secretary of the Jundla grain market was suspended and a departmental inquiry ordered in the case after the chief minister’s flying squad detected a paddy procurement scam of around 75,000 quintals.
