Chandigarh, Nov 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) The CBI Court in Mohali, Punjab, has convicted and sentenced 30 accused, including 14 officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and 16 private rice millers in the 2004-05 Punjab Rice Procurement Scam.
The convicted accused were held guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The 14 FCI officials were additionally convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The court has sentenced the convicted people to rigorous imprisonment ranging from one to three years, along with fines. The case relates to a criminal conspiracy between FCI officials and private rice millers during 2004-05, wherein substandard rice was accepted as Grade-A rice at FCI centres in Malerkotla, Sunam and Tapa, Sangrur district. This resulted in wrongful payments to rice millers and financial loss to FCI.
The irregularities came to light during Joint Surprise Checks conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in September 2005. Laboratory examination of rice samples confirmed that the consignments did not conform to the prescribed quality specifications.
Accordingly, the CBI registered the case on January 7, 2006. After completion of the investigation, three separate chargesheets were filed on November 28, 2008.
In the case relating to Malerkotla, the court has convicted 10 accused persons, comprising five FCI Officials and an equal number of rice millers.
FCI Officials, namely, Varinder Rajput, Girdari Lal and K.P. Singh, the then Technical Assistants, FCI, and Raunaq Ali and R.N. Sharma, the then Assistant Managers (Quality Control), FCI, have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment (RI) for two years with a fine of Rs. 15,000 each.
Private Rice Millers, namely, Harish Kumar and Rajnish Kumar, Partners of M/s Shiv Shakti Rice Agro Products, and Rakesh Goyal, Partner of M/s R.K. Agro Tech, have been sentenced to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) for three years with a fine of Rs. 25,000 each while Ramesh Singla, partner of M/s Shiv Shakti Rice Agro Products, and Narinder Kumar, partner of M/s Satkartar Rice and Agro Mills, have been sentenced to RI for two years with a fine of Rs. 20,000 each.
In the Sunam case, the court has convicted six accused persons, comprising three FCI officials and three private rice millers. FCI officials, namely, R.C. Verma, the then Assistant Manager (Quality Control), FCI, and Som Pal Singh and K.L. Gulati, the then Technical Assistants, FCI, have been sentenced to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) for two years with a fine of Rs.15,000 each.
Private Rice Millers, namely, Kewal Krishan, Partner of M/s Mahavir Rice Mills, has been sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000, while Hari Ram and Jiwan Lal, Partners of M/s K.C. Rice Mills, have been sentenced to RI for two years with a fine of Rs. 20,000 each.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz