A covert operation that was over six months old, by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday led to searches at more than 50 locations across Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, following the registration of a case against 74 persons, including 34 serving and three retired Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials and 20 rice mills. A massive corruption in the procurement of food grains has been alleged.
“The accused officials range from technical assistant and managers to an executive director named Sudeep Singh, who is posted in Delhi. The searches were carried out in Punjab’s Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Ropar, Sangrur and Chandigarh, Ambala in Haryana and on the premises of Mr. Singh in Delhi,” said a CBI official.
The CBI also arrested an FCI deputy general manager named Rajiv Kumar Mishra for allegedly receiving ₹50,000 as bribe from Ravinder Singh Khera, the proprietor of a rice and agro product company.
The official said, during the searches, the agency had so far seized about ₹80 lakh in cash and jewellery from different locations, including the premises of the accused executive director, manager (laboratory) Satish Verma, technical assistant Nishant Barria and assistant Manpreet Singh, besides Navneet Kaur and Navpreet Kaur. It found ₹15 lakh in cash concealed inside a washing machine at the residence of a technical assistant.
The operation code named “Kanak” was launched to identify the corrupt FCI officials, mill owners, grain merchants, middlemen and warehouse operators, who were suspected to be part of a large network that had been indulging in malpractices like the supply of substandard grains and the registration of inflated quantities of procurements. A surveillance in this connection was mounted.
Probing “benami food supply depots”
The agency is also looking into the role of several Punjab officials who were operating “benami” food supply depots.
The CBI probe has revealed that the bribe money was mostly being collected by the accused junior FCI officials and was distributed up the hierarchical ladder, as alleged.
Earlier this month, in another case, the agency chargesheeted a former deputy general manager (Region) of the FCI (Guwahati) and the proprietor of a private company for allegedly extending undue favour to the latter, which resulted in a loss of ₹55.28 lakh to the exchequer.
Set up under the Food Corporation Act, the FCI’s role is to ensure “effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of farmers; distribution of foodgrains throughout the country for public distribution system; and maintaining satisfactory levels of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure National Food Security”. It operates about 2,200 warehouses, owned or hired. More than 600 storage units are located in Punjab.
