8 more officials chargesheeted, 2 suspended

CHANDIGARH The Punjab food and civil supplies department on Tuesday issued chargesheet against eight more officials and suspended two in connection with the pilferage of wheat worth Rs 20 crore from Pungrain godowns in Jandiala Guru sub-division of Amritsar district.

A total of five officials have been suspended while 10 were chargesheeted so far.

Those issued charge-sheet on Tuesday are deputy director Rajnish Kumari who was posted as district food and civil supplies controller (DFSC) in Amritsar from 2018 to 2019.

Those suspended are assistant food and civil supplies officer Cheery Bhatia and supervisor Rajinder Bains. The DFSCs issued chargesheet are Satvir Mavi, Rajnish Kumari, Mangal Das and Talwinder Singh. Current DFSC Raj Rishi Mehra and his predecessor Jasjit Kaur have already been charge-sheeted.

Food and civil supplies officer Himanshu Kakkar and supervisors Nishan Singh and Randhir

Singh were also charge-sheeted on the orders of minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu.

At least 1.45 lakh wheat bags weighing 50kg each (87,164 quintal) and 56,000 bags of 30kg each (16,800 quintal) were missing from the Jandiala Guru godowns. The department had earlier placed district food and supplies officer Amarinder Singh, assistant food and supplies officer Arshdeep Singh and inspector Jasdev Singh under suspension. As the department’s vigilance wing has started physical verification, a parallel investigation has been handed over to the state vigilance department.

Senior officials say that the stock was verified from home.

Ashu has asked the department to complete the probe before the start of paddy procurement in October. He has also issued instructions to start a system of electronic physical verification of stock.

Jasdev, the custodian inspector in Jandiala Guru, is absconding for about a month and his house has been found locked. He has been traced to Dubai and his wife is learnt to be in Turkey.