Gujarat trader decamps with apples worth Rs 1 crore from Himachal
Solan, September 28
Police teams from Solan were sent to various places in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to arrest an apple trader today, who vanished with apple consignments worth Rs 1.08 crore. He was operating a firm in the name of AZ Babloo.
According to a complaint received by the police, he operated from shed number 33 in the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee’s apple market at Kather on the Solan-Shimla highway.
Secretary APMC Ravinder Sharma, however, said no such arhtiya or trader was registered with the APMC. The traders, who buy apples from the registered arhtiyas, are also supposed to be registered and to pay 1 per cent as market fee to the APMC.
In a bid to evade the market fee, traders at times don’t register themselves with the APMC. Such cases come to the fore every year and this has made the apple trading a risky proposition, said Sharma.
According to complainants, Abdulla Ahmed, who operated the company, had been trading apples for the last two months and was a resident of Surat in Gujarat.
He failed to pay dues worth Rs 1.08 crore to 12 traders, who sold apple to him. Though part payment was made to arhtiyas, he failed to pay the remaining amount and vanished, said Ajay Rana, Additional SP, Solan.
A case of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered and further probe is under way.
