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After 21 years, Madhya Pradesh police book warehouse manager for stealing farmer’s crop
Sahu, a faremr, had accused the warehouse manager of allegedly stealing sacks of dry coriander in December 1999.
The Madhya Pradesh police have completed a probe into the theft of 471 sacks of dry coriander from a government warehouse in Guna district and registered a case 21 years after Bherulal Sahu, a farmer 55, filed his complaint about it.
Sahu had accused the warehouse manager, Vijay Kumar Agrawal, of allegedly stealing the sacks in December 1999 and selling them for ₹4.5 lakh. “I owned 12 bigha land in 1999 and had taken some 6-7 bigha on rent. My father-in-law and I stored 471 sacks of coriander at the warehouse in Binaganj in May 1999. I had taken a loan of ₹1 lakh from a trader to whom I was introduced by Agrawal. Against the loan, I mortgaged about 100 sacks of the crop.” Sahu added in December 1999, when he went to collect his crop to sell it, he came to know that Agrawal sold all the sacks by allegedly using his forged signature. “After struggling for four months to get my crop back or money, I lodged a police complaint,” said Sahu.
Sahu said he filed the theft and fraud complaint at Binaganj police station in April 2000. “I had to sell my 2.5 bigha land to pay my crop loan and rent of farmland. I urged former chief ministers Digvijaya Singh, Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, and Kamal Nath to help me and sought justice but nothing happened. I approached chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too many times, but he also could not help me.”
Sahu said he met Agrawal many times to get his money back, but he was not ready to do so. “In 2015, he offered me ₹2 lakh to end the case but after 15 years, it had become a fight for pride and against the breach of trust. I have met at least 15 superintendents of police of Guna, and they always said the matter is being investigated.”
In February, when Rajeev Mishra took over as the Guna police superintendent, he reviewed all the pending cases and got to know about Sahu’s pending case. “Mishra asked Binagaj police to investigate the matter and after four months, I finally won a long battle to have the case registered,” Sahu said.
Mishra said the case was registered on Thursday against Agarwal of the Madhya Pradesh Warehouse Corporation under Indian Penal Code’s Sections 420 (fraud), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 467 (forgery of valuable security), and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating).
“I have also ordered an inquiry into the delay of more than two decades in registering the case,” said Mishra.
Despite repeated attempts, Agrawal could not be contacted for comments.
