Wheat worth Rs 1.92 cr embezzled in Moga

Moga, June 24

A scam of wheat embezzlement worth Rs 1.92 crore at Pungrain, a state-owned food procurement agency of the Punjab Government, has come to light in

Moga district.

A letter in this regard has been written by Geeta Bishambu, District Food and Civil Supplies Controller, to the Principal Secretary and Director of the Food and Civil Supplies Department. It states that on June 17 and June 18, a total of 733.32 MT of wheat procured in 2021 and 2022 was siphoned off from a Pungrain storehouse at Samadh Bhai village in Baghapurana subdivision.

The embezzlement was detected during physical verification at the storehouse by the Food and Civil Supplies Department, Bishambu claimed in her letter. To cross-check the facts, the physical verification of stock was again conducted by officials from Tarn Taran district, which confirmed the anomaly.

Following this, Bishambu wrote a complaint to Moga SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana to register an FIR against Food and Civil Supplies Inspector Charanjit Singh and custodian of the storehouse Jugraj Singh, against whom a departmental enquiry would also be conducted by the department concerned.

The Baghapurana police registered a case against them and further investigations are underway. The investigating officer, Buta Singh, said the accused were yet to be arrested.

A detailed finding of the verification of stocks suggested that 444.775 MT of wheat, which amounts to 14,825 bags of 30 kg each, were found missing from the food grain purchased in 2021 while the rest of the wheat bags stored at various plinths were from the stocks purchased in 2022. A total of 733.32 MT wheat procured in the past two years was found missing.

Sources said the missing wheat stocks could have been sold in the market after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February this year as the price of wheat grain increased in March and April across the globe, including Punjab and other states of the country. However, the police officials maintain that it could be established only after custodial interrogation of the accused officials.

“We are making all out efforts to nab the accused officials who are eluding arrest,” the investigating officer said.