Cops bust racket, recover rice worth Rs7.56 lakh given to poor in Covid
Published on: January 7, 2022.
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Nagpur: Police on Wednesday busted a major racket and recovered 445 quintals rice, worth Rs 7.56 lakh, which was disrtibuted for free to the economically-weaker sections or provided at subsidized rate during the pandemic. The racketeers were ferrying the rice to mills in Gondia for polishing it and selling at higher rates through upmarket outlets.
Police raided a godown owned by Mohd Ismail Issac near Dighori bridge in an early dawn operation. The police operation may also unearth a major scam in the public distribution system (PDS) as 25 sealed sacks of rice, 50 kg each, were found with labels of different state governments.
Another 500 empty sacks, with labels of different state governments like Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and others were also found. The cops are now probing the source of these sacks.
A team of ACP Ganesh Biradar has recovered 890 sacks of rice. Around 400 sacks were intercepted from a vehicle while it was being offloaded at the godown while another 490 sacks were found stacked.
CP Amitesh Kumar had earlier said that this year police will crack down on rackets in PDS.
ACP Biradar said two racketeers, identified as Ahmed Raza Mohd Qasim and Amol Lambare, were arrested while investigation is being done to find whether the godown owner, transporter and Gondia-based mill owner are involved or not.
“On interrogation, the racketeers stated that the rice was procured through autorickshaw drivers who had got it from poor people. These poor people had got the foodgrains from either government ration shops for almost free or from NGOs, social workers and such groups or organizations,” he said.
The ACP, who led a team comprising Nandlal Sharma, Santosh Pandey, Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Sunil Vishwakarma, also said that some of the rice was sold to the racketeers by drivers of transport companies engaged for ferrying these grains to government godowns like that of Food Corporation of India.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/cops-bust-racket-recover-rice-worth-rs7-56-lakh-given-to-poor-in-covid/articleshow/88742513.cms
