Food grains meant for BPL people sold in market
Jammu Tawi, July 21
Additional Sessions Judge Anti-Corruption, Udhampur, SR Gandhi on Tuesday rejected the bail application of Rakesh Kumar Pargal, former chief supervisor, Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown Udhampur, in Rs 260-crore ration scam.
The court while rejecting the bail application observed that the investigating agency required more time to unearth the conspiracy and to retrieve the missing record as well.
“Having regard to the stage of the investigation, it is not possible to express opinion on the merits of the case. In this case public money involved is huge and thus public interest is involved. In dealing with such cases the consequences of granting bail to an accused involved is always considered with its ultimate impact on the society,” the court observed.
Some officials of the FCI and Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution in connivance of flour mill owners and officials of the Transport Department allegedly misappropriated over Rs 260 crore on account of wheat grains, transportation and labour charges on the basis of fictitious and false bills.
A case under FIR No 01/2020 was registered in this regard on February 19, 2020 in Doda.
As per police record, during the course of investigation, searches at the residential premises of the accused persons were conducted and incriminating documents were recovered, which were put to scrutiny.
The laptops and hard disk which were seized during the search proceedings have been sent to CFSL for expert analysis, a report for which is still awaited, mentioned the record.
The investigation further revealed that quantity of wheat which was supposed to be transported on trucks was transported only on papers and cost of wheat, labour, grinding and transportation charges were withdrawn from government exchequer.
It also came to the fore that instead of providing ration to needy people, it was sold in market. However, in the record it was shown to the distributed among poor people.
Also, 157 vehicles that were shown to have been used for transportation of wheat in the receipt statement of the CAPD were found non-existent.
