PDS rice recovered: Private mill owners booked for cheating

16,500 BAGS OF RICE AT SHIVA RICE MILL, PHAGWARA, AND 600 AT JAI SHANKAR RICE MILL, JALANDHAR, WERE RECOVERED ON OCT 3

Owners of the four private rice mills in Kapurthala and Jalandhar, where vigilance team had recovered thousands of bags of rice, were booked on Friday, said police.

The 36, 000 bags of unaccounted rice were diverted from the public distribution system (PDS) in Bihar and Punjab.

Vigilance team on Wednesday had found 16,500 bags of rice at Shiva Rice Mill, Phagwara, and 600 bags of rice at Jai Shankar Rice Mill, Jalandhar.

Amit Gubar, owner of Shiva Rice Mill was booked along with the owner of Jai Shankar Rice Mill.

Sadar station house officer Jaswinder Singh said police don’t have the name of the Jai Shankar Rice Mill owner and his name will be included in the FIR later.

Punjab food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said the rice bags belonged to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar food supply that were delivered to FCI for the central pool but have been illegally circled back to Punjab.

On the recommendation of Punjab’s food and civil supplies department, a case was registered under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and Sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).