A truck carrying precious tomatoes from Karnataka's Kolar district to Jaipur has gone missing amidst the soaring prices, PTI reported on Monday. The trader, Vinay Reddy, claimed that he has lost contact with the driver and cleaner of his truck carrying 11 tonnes of tomatoes worth ₹21 lakh from Kolar district to Rajasthan's Jaipur.
According to the complaint filed in the Kolar police station, the truck loaded with 750 crates of tomatoes left the local 'mandi' in Kolar on Thursday and was scheduled to reach Jaipur on Saturday for supply to a local vegetable market
Since it was being tracked via the GPS facility, Reddy found that the vehicle has covered around 1,800 km since it left Kolar. He said that he last spoke to the driver around 9pm and he had assured that by 11pm, the consignment would reach Jaipur. But, later he found that his consignment did not reach its destination and when he tried to contact the driver, his phone was switched off, a senior police officer said.
“We loaded 11 tonnes of tomatoes which were packaged in 750 boxes in a truck from Kolar tomato mandi. The consignment was to be unloaded at Mohana Sabji Mandi, Jaipur by Saturday midnight. The vehicle also had an inbuilt GPS tracking system,” Reddy, owner of SVT traders, said.
Meanwhile, Reddy received information from his local sources that the tomatoes were sold in Ahmedabad. “We suspect that these tomatoes were sold off by the driver but we still haven’t been able to get in touch with him," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Reddy received information from his local sources that the tomatoes were sold in Ahmedabad. “We suspect that these tomatoes were sold off by the driver but we still haven’t been able to get in touch with him," he said.
{{/usCountry}}He further claimed that the same truck was not used to transport the consignment to Ahmedabad and the tomatoes belonged to three parties and they are also likely to file a complaint at the local police station in Ahmedabad.
“Based on a complaint received from one of the traders based in Kolar, we have initiated a preliminary inquiry into the matter. No FIR has been registered in the matter yet since we had to verify whether the driver had met with any accident on the way to its destination or if the tomatoes got stolen. So, an inquiry was initiated and we collected details from the complainant in the matter,” PTI reported citing the official.
Earlier this month, tomatoes worth ₹2.5 lakh were stolen from a farm in Karnataka’s Hassan district, while in another such incident, a couple from Tamil Nadu was arrested for hijacking a truck laden with 2.5 tonnes of tomatoes in Bengaluru after faking an accident to extort money.
(With inputs from PTI)