Rs 260 Cr Ration scam comes to fore, ACB raids 13 premises

Nexus between CA&PD, SRTC, Trikuta Flour Mill busted

JAMMU: The Anti-Corruption Bureau on Thursday registered a case in a multi-crore scam in the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) department in Udhampur and carried out searches at the premises of the accused, including government officials, across five districts in Jammu region.
The case was registered on the basis of a complaint received by the then Vigilance Organisation regarding the allegations of misappropriation of Rs 260 crore on account of cost of wheat grains, transportation charges, labour charges and grinding charges drawn on the basis of fictitious and false bills, a spokesman of the ACB said.
He said a verification conducted by the vigilance organisation, now known as ACB, for the period from May 2013 to April, 2014 has revealed that 157 vehicles that were shown to have been used for wheat transportation in the receipt statement of CAPD were found non-existent either in the records of State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) or in the records of Food Corporation of India (FCI).
"...it is evident that the quantity of wheat which was supposed to be transported on the trucks was not actually transported thereby an amount to the tune of Rs 91,97,250 in the shape of labour charges, grinding charges, transportation charges, cost of wheat in the categories of APL, BPL and AAY for the check period of May, 2013 to April, 2014 have been misappropriated by the officials of CAPD department in connivance with officials of SRTC, mill owners, transport contractors and others, he said.
The investigations for the period before May, 2013 and after April, 2014 have also been started, he said.
After the registration of the case, he said searches were conducted at the premises of the accused in Rajouri, Ramban, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur districts.
Those whose premises were searched included then assistant directors of CAPD Udhampur Muklis Ali at Thanamandi in Rajouri, Abdul Rashid at Banihal in Ramban, Joginder Singh of Roop Nagar Jammu and Romesh Chander of ITI College Samba.
The searches were also conducted in the premises of Romesh Kumar and Sushma Gupta—both then Supervisors Trikuta Floor Mill Udhampur, Sushil Kumar, then Supervisor, FCI Udhampur, Rakesh Pargal, then Supervisor, FCI Godown Udhampur, Deepak Abrol, Booking Manager, SRTC Udhampur, Romesh Kumar, then Clerk Depot office SRTC Udhampur, Sumit Mahajan and Amit Mahajan-- Owners Trikuta Flour Mill Udhampur, and Paramdeep Singh, Contractor, SRTC.
During searches, cash amounting to Rs six lakh were recovered from the house of the then Assistant Director Joginder Singh, while laptops and relevant records were seized from his and other locations.