Food grains worth Rs 50L seized, interstate black marketing racket busted
JAMSHEDPUR: East Singhbhum (Jamshedpur) district administration and police busted an interstate food grain smuggling and black marketing racket in a series of raids at five locations across the city till late Friday night, officials said on Saturday. A whopping 1,607 quintals of food grains worth about Rs 50 lakh in open market were seized during the raids.
“Raids were carried out in Sakchi and Golmuri on a tip-off about hoarding and black marketing of food grain meant for the poor last night and an interstate racket has been busted. Prima facie, large-scale irregularities have been found and huge quantities of rice and wheat have been seized. At least half a dozen shops and godowns have been sealed,” Suraj Kumar, Jamshedpur deputy commissioner (DC), said.
“A special investigation team comprising ADM (law and order) NK Lal, city SP Subhash Chnadra Jat, special officer rationing (SOR) Naveen Kumar and executive magistrates Sabita Toppo, Chandradeb Prasad and Pramod Ram has been constituted to further probe the matter. Strong action are being taken against the perpetrators,” added Kumar.
SOR Naveen Kumar said the license of a PDS shop in Sakchi refugee market has been cancelled and the process to replace the dealers has been initiated. The seized food grain would be acquired back under section 6 of Essential Commodities Act (EC Act) and auctioned after approval by the DC.
“A total of 2524 bagful of rice and 690 bagful of wheat amounting 1,607 quintals of food grain were seized from two big godowns, two shops and a PDS shop. FIRs have been lodged in Sakchi and Golmuri police on the basis of complaints and inquiry report by marketing officer JP Srivastav,” said the SOR.
Leading transporter Deepak Mohnani and his brother Sanjay Mohnani have been made the main accused along with others in the FIRs under section 7 of Essential Commodities Act. “No arrests have yet been made though raid area on,” Kuanl Kumar, Sakchi police station officer-in-charge (OC) said. Mohani was the transport contractor for door step delivery of food grains but his contract had expired in March this year but was extended till September in view of Covid-19 crisis. Interestingly, he was awarded best transporter by the state government earlier. The district, however, floated a new tender on Wednesday last. Officials said the racket used to divert the food grain on the way from state food corporation godowns to block level godowns and then to PDS shops. Then, it was freshly packed and re-tagged with names of several other states like Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh. Eight bags of tags, bags and FCI stickers of different states, three bag sealing and tagging machines have also been seized