Amritsar, April 6: The district Food and Civil Supplies Department seized 5,376 bags of paddy from Central Warehousing Corporation godown in the Bhagtanwala area here on Thursday. According to department officials, this was the paddy which was siphoned off from Veeru Mal Mulakhraj Jain Rice Mill in Jandiala Guru.
However, two private firms, Bunty Enterprises and Ravindera Exports, came to the scene and claimed that it was their paddy which they had bought through banks. However, they failed to produce any document to establish their claims. They have sought time for showing the documents.The officials said they were assessing the worth of the paddy. “Roughly it appears to be between Rs 1.50 crore and 1.75 crore,” sources said.
The department managed to locate the paddy after the raiding teams at Jandiala Guru rice mill stumbled upon two gate passes in the name of two firms. The officials conducting physical verification of the paddy at Jandiala Guru asked the district Food and Civil Supplies Department to conduct a raid at the CWC godown to recover the same.
Raminder Singh Bath, District Food and Civil Supplies Officer, confirmed the confiscation and said the representatives of two firms had sought time till Friday morning. He said they were sure that the stored paddy was siphoned off from the Jandiala Guru rice mill.
“We have asked the Central Warehousing Corporation not to release the stock of paddy without their permission. We have also informed the Director, Food and Civil Supplies, and other authorities about this. A complaint was also submitted to the Amritsar (rural) police for registering an FIR and taking further necessary action,” he said.
Meanwhile, officials of different government agencies, including Pungrain and Punjab Warehousing Corporation, also reached the spot to claim that the paddy belonged to them, while officials of Punjab National Bank from where Gulshan Jain, owner of Veeru Mal Mulakhraj Jain rice mill, had taken the cash credit limit of Rs 202 crore, also put their claim on the paddy.
Source Tribune India
