Punjab: 9 FCI officials, 2 pvt millers convicted in substandard rice procurement case

By Bariderjeet Saluja

A special CBI court in Mohali on Tuesday convicted and sentenced nine Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials and two private rice millers for accepting substandard rice during the 2004-05 kharif procurement season, causing financial loss to the public exchequer.

Special judge Baljinder Singh Sra held that FCI officials, in connivance with private millers, had accepted substandard rice consignments and falsely graded them as A-grade, leading to wrongful payments.

The case related to the Moga depot in then Faridkot district. A joint surprise inspection was conducted on Sept 29, 2005, by a CBI team along with FCI technical staff and independent witnesses. During the inspection, 46 rice samples were collected from different stacks and sent for laboratory examination.

Analysis by the Central Grain Analysis Laboratory, under the Union ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, found that none of the samples met prescribed specifications. Samples from nine stacks were found unfit for human consumption as they exceeded permissible limits.

The court convicted Raj Kumar, R C Puri, Gulab Singh, Pitambir Singh, Gian Singh, D K Sharma, Azad Singh, Rajesh Ranjan and GPS Kalra, all FCI officials posted in quality control and technical roles, and sentenced them to one year rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 5,000 fine under Section 120-B IPC, three years rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 15,000 fine under Section 420 read with Section 34 IPC, and three years rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 10,000 fine under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Among private millers, Govinder Singh, partner of M/s Punjab Rice & General Mills, Moga, and Pardeep Bansal, partner of M/s R P Agro Industries, were sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 5,000 fine under Section 120-B IPC, and three years rigorous imprisonment with a Rs 25,000 fine under Section 420 read with Section 34 IPC.

The court, however, acquitted Gurchain Singh, Santokh Singh, Kamla Aggarwal, Sumeet Garg and Vaneet Kumar of all charges.

Proceedings against K Siva Prashad, the then senior regional manager of FCI Punjab, Barjinder Singh and Pawan Kumar were earlier quashed by the Punjab and Haryana high court. Proceedings against another Pawan Kumar and Kailash Rani abated after their death during the trial. The prosecution in the case was conducted by Anmol Narang.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.