Two held for black marketing of grains

The grains, meant for poor, were being transferred in gunny bags without labels

Mumbai

The city crime branch has arrested two persons on the charges of black marketing of food grains meant for poor during lockdown.

Acting on a tip off, a team from crime branch unit 12 raided a godown of food grains at Kandarpada in Dahisar. During the raid, Dinanath Yadav,39, and Sujit Rajbhar, 28, were caught redhanded while transferring the wheat from gunny bags of Food Corporation or India (FCI) to the different bags. The grains were being transferred into labelless bags so that it could be sold in black market for better prices.

Around 271 gunny bags of wheat worth Rs 2.71 lakh, another 200 empty bags of FCI, two sewing machines to repack the grains and a truck were seized during the raid.

According to the crime branch officer, the godown belongs to Yadav, who used it as a landing point for FCI food grains. During the interrogation, it has been revealed that the godown was being used for the black marketing Since early April.

Following the seizure, the two were booked under the IPC section of cheating, disobeying public servant's order, negligent act likely to spread infection of diseases dangerous to life and sections of Essential Comodities act.

The crime branch which has taken over the investigation believes that this is not the handy work of the two and there are many more people involved in this racket, most likely from the agents who receive grains from FCI under the PDS scheme and other people involved in the transportation and storage of the grains.

There is shortage of grains at the rationing shops and people across the country are complaining that they are not getting enough supplies. Owing to job losses due to the lockdown, the central government has announced I kg of pulses and free ration per family for NFSA beneficiaries.