SIT formed to probe ‘ghost’ paddy buying in Karnal

Amid allegations of large-scale irregularities in paddy procurement, Karnal Superintendent of Police (SP) Ganga Ram Punia constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)-rank officer.

Members of CIA-2, officials from the police stations where the three FIRs had been registered and cyber experts are part of the team. The official claimed that they would unearth the nexus at the earliest.

“A SIT has been formed to trace the involvement of all persons named in the three FIRs registered so far or others involved in these cases. We are investigating all angles,” said SP Punia.

He maintained that since the allegations involve the issuance of gate passes without the actual arrival of paddy, the expertise of cyber specialists is crucial to identify the use of multiple devices and IP addresses.

So far, three FIRs have been lodged involving two market committee secretaries –Karnal and Taraori, one rice miller and five procurement officials. No arrests have been made yet.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that fake procurement entries were made to show paddy arrivals that never arrived in the grain markets, causing financial losses to the government exchequer.

Officials are now tracing the entire trail of the “ghost” paddy procurement -– from registration of farmers at ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ portal, the issuance of gate passes to the final disbursement of payments for the fake arrivals. The probe aims to determine which commission agents’ shops were used to create the fraudulent entries, which government agencies processed the procurement and which rice mills were assigned to handle the stock.

So far, eight grain markets — Karnal, Gharaunda, Assandh, Taraori, Indri, Nissing, Nigdhu and Jundla — have come under investigation as these have witnessed high arrivals in comparison to the last season till November 4. Early findings suggest that a network of insiders conspired to exploit loopholes in the procurement system. Fake gate passes were allegedly issued in bulk to create the appearance of heavy arrivals. In one FIR registered at City police station, multiple gate passes were issued with the use of different IP addresses from outside the grain market.

Officials are also scrutinising the banking trail to identify where payments for the ghost procurement were ultimately diverted. Cyber experts are also investigating these suspicious money transfers to identify the ultimate beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, BKU (Sir Chhotu Ram) spokesperson Bahadur Mehla Baldi demanded the immediate arrest of the officials involved in the FIRs and recovery of the embezzled funds. He threatened that the union would launch a protest soon if arrests are not made.

He said that irregularities in the ongoing physical verification process of rice mills revealed the discrepancies in paddy procurement. He claimed that mills found with shortages are bringing in paddy from outside the state to complete the stock. “This is a massive scam. Trucks loaded with paddy from other states are parked outside the mills while verification is being done inside,” Mehla said, adding that they would not allow attempts to shield the officials and rice millers involved.