Department seals two rice mills in Gharaunda

Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 16

The Food and Civil Supplies Department has sealed two rice mills in Gharaunda allegedly for not delivering custom milled rice (CMR) worth Rs 37 crore to the department. The Gharaunda police have registered two FIRs against the proprietors and guarantors under Section 406, 420 of the IPC.

Nishant Kumar Rathi, District Food Supplies Controller (DFSC), said that the department had issued paddy to Jai Hanuman Rice Mill and SSG Foods Gharaunda in 2019-20, but they failed to deliver 4,756 MT and 5,940 MT respectively. It jointly costs around Rs 37 crore.

“We have issued several notices to them and several dates were also given to them. Their last date was October 15, but they failed to deliver the pending rice, forcing the department to take action against them,” he said.

Accused is in Dubai

In another case, the second accused in the alleged embezzlement of CMR worth Rs 5.09 crore by Ram Dev International Company is in Dubai.

This was revealed by Naresh Kumar, MD of Ram Dev International Company, which has three rice milling plants, eight sorting and grading units in the district with offices in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Delhi.

Naresh Kumar had surrendered before the Karnal police and was taken on seven-day police remand. Today, he was produced in court and taken on one-day police remand.

Ganga Ram Punia, Superintendent of Police (SP), said that his remand was extended for one day by the court. During remand, he accepted that his brother Suresh Kumar, who is a co-accused in the same case, is in Dubai.

In May, the CBI had registered a case against Naresh along with two other directors Suresh Kumar and Sangita for a multi-crore fraud following a complaint by the SBI on February 25.

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