More heads may roll in paddy scam

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 25

A day after the Vigilance Department nabbed two Punjab Grains Procurement Corporation Limited (Pungrain) inspectors for allegedly conniving with a private rice mill owner to misappropriate government paddy allotted to it by replacing the same with below par standard grains, many heads are likely to roll in the scam.

The Vigilance sleuths are trying to identify market committee officials, besides other staff members of Pungrain who might be involved in the bungling.

The Vigilance has yesterday arrested the two Pungrain inspectors, identified as Taranjit Singh and Vikas Sharma, while it has also booked Vinod Kumar, owner of the rice mill, for fraud, forgery, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.

The incident came to light when Vigilance sleuths intercepted the two inspectors while transporting government gunny bags from the railway station to Khasa-based Jagdambay rice mill though it was actually meant for the Bhagtanwala grain market. The consignment contained a total of 10,000 gunny bags of A-category grains.

About the modus operandi used by swindlers, sources revealed that the rice mill owner used to procure inferior quality paddy from the Bhagtanwala grain market at lesser rates through his commission agent at the market and stores the same in his rice mill godown. They said when the government allots high quality grains to rice mills for milling, the owner in connivance with the two inspectors and officials of the market committee used to replace good quality grains with inferior paddy and fill in gunny bags, thereby causing huge losses to the state exchequer by illegally charging loading fees, market fees, commission of agents, besides costs of transportation.

Though officials remained tight-lipped over investigations carried out so far in the department, a case has been registered for criminal breach of trust (Section 406), cheating and thereby dishonestly inducing delivery of property (420), forgery (465), Forgery of valuable security, will or authority to make or transfer any valuable security (467), forgery for purpose of cheating (468), using as genuine a forged document (471) and criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the Indian Penal Code against the three suspects and others.

They said the Vigilance was probing the role of market committee officials, besides other officials of Pungrain to expose the entire nexus.

The two arrested inspectors sent to police remand.