Wheat scam: Govt shifts probe to Punjab Vigilance Bureau

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 26

Weeks after the pilferage of over 87,000 quintals of government wheat, the Punjab Government has marked a probe into the scam to the Punjab Vigilance Bureau from the Amritsar rural police.

SSP, Vigilance, Parampal Singh has confirmed the development adding that the rural police have been asked to hand over the records to the VB in this connection.

Following the complaint of District Food and Civil Supply Controller Rishi Raj Mehra, the Amritsar rural police have booked custodian inspector Jasdev Singh on charges of fraud (420, IPC) and criminal breach of trust (409, IPC) and other relevant sections of IPC on August 6.

Jasdev Singh had already mysteriously disappeared from his house around a week before a case in this regard was registered on August 6. Following this, the head of the vigilance committee of the department had ordered the physical verification of the eight godowns, which were looked after by him.

The incident came to light when the Food Corporation of India was to upload wheat in a special train from the Gehri Mandi railway station and as per norms, it was mandatory for the custodian inspector to remain present with the record. However, he was not present there. When officials called Jasdev, his mobile was switched off. Jasdev and his family members mysteriously disappeared from the house last month. Jasdev was the custodian of eight godowns located at Jandiala, Gehri Mandi and Dhire Kot villages.

Following this, the department decided to get a physical verification done by its Vigilance Department. The physical verification continued for two days and the department found as many as 87,160 quintals of wheat worth Rs 20 crore missing.

According to the complaint submitted to the police, the DFSC said as many as 1,45,787 bags of 50 kg wheat each belonging to Pungrain and 47,556 bags containing 30 kg wheat each (total 1,93,343 bags) were found bungled from the eight godowns. The Food and Civil Supply Department on behalf of Pungrain and the Punjab Government had procured the grains from the grain market.

Investigation later revealed that the accused also siphoned off crores of rupees given as the minimum support price on wheat as he allegedly made fake entries for the purchase of 1.84 lakh of bags of wheat which was shown to be transported to godowns in Jandiala Guru. The roles of commission agents, sellers, auction recorders of the mandi board, agency inspectors and transporters were also under the scanner.

The department chargesheeted 10 officials, including deputy directors, Jalandhar division, and allege district food and supply controllers posted in Amritsar from 2018 till now. Two officials — Assistant Food and Supply Officer Cherry Bhatia and Inspector Rajinder Bains — have been placed under suspension.