Two rice mill owners have been booked for embezzling paddy worth lakhs belonging to Pungrain and forging documents to allegedly cheat the agency.
The case has been registered at Samana sadar police station on the complaint of Pungrain district manager Ajayvir Singh Sarao, who is also district food and supply controller (DFSC).
The accused have been identified as Madan Mohan and Kulwinder Singh, owners of Pratham Agro Food and Prabhat Agro Food respectively.
46,500 gunny bags = 16,275 quintal (25 quintals only)
53,400 gunny bags = 18690 quintal (12,293 quintals only)
According to the FIR in the first case, the government procuring agency had allocated 46,500 gunny bags (approximately 16,275 quintals) of paddy to be stored in Pratham Agro Food during the last year's procurement season, but the accused rice miller returned only 25 quintals of rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
In the other case, Prabhat Food Agro returned only 12,293 quintals of rice against the allocation of 53,400 gunny bags (approximately 18,690 quintals), while embezzling rest of the quantity of rice.
Sarao said the embezzlement came to the fore during physical verification of the stock stacked in both the mills during a raid in July this year.
"During verification, it was noticed that the stored paddy stock was missing from the premises of both the rice mills. Even the stock registers were poorly maintained," Sarao said.
"Moreover during checking of documents, it was unearthed that both the accused were declared defaulters by the department years ago. But, both forged documents and registered these mills on different names at the same places," he added.
Following physical verification, the department reported the matter to the police on July 7 and 16, while the police registered the case on November 4 against the accused under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently use document or electronic record) of the IPC.
"The case has been registered after conducting detailed investigation into the case. The teams were sent to arrest the accused, who are still at large," said Gurdip Singh, SHO, Samana sadar police station.
The police officer added that they are also accessing more documents to estimate the loss to the agency.
Following physical verification, the department reported the matter to the police on July 7 and 16, while the police registered the case on November 4 against the accused under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently use document or electronic record) of the IPC.
"The case has been registered after conducting detailed investigation into the case. The teams were sent to arrest the accused, who are still at large," said Gurdip Singh, SHO, Samana sadar police station.
The police officer added that they are also accessing more documents to estimate the loss to the agency.