Revenue officials on Thursday seized 160 bags of raw as well as boiled rice, weighing 8,000 kg and valued at Rs.96,000.
The rice pilfered from a consignment to or from Food Corporation of India was covered with tarpaulins and kept in a vacant land covered by thorny bushes at Nallampalayam near Ganapathy.
Chase in vain
The team that raided the vacant land led by District Revenue Officer A. Shanmugasundaram found a group of four persons moving around in a suspicious manner and gave a chase but in vain.
In the last one month, the officials have seized 53,800 kg of rice valued at Rs.6.99 lakh. The raids also resulted in seizure of seven vehicles valued at Rs.43 lakh.
Across the entire State, Coimbatore recorded the biggest seizure — two huge trucks with 40 tonnes of rice — which were about to be smuggled across to the open market/Kerala.
Tightened vigil
Mr. Shanmugasundaram said that the administration has tightened vigil on the roads leading to Kerala. He had supervised arrangements at check posts on inter-State roads.
