Crackdown against FCI officials, CBI raids 50 sites across region

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Chandigarh, January 11

In a massive anti-corruption crackdown, nicknamed “Operation Kanak”, against officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the CBI today conducted searches at 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi following the arrest of a DGM-rank officer.

Naming a total of 74 persons in its FIR, including FCI Executive Director Sudeep Singh, officials said the CBI launched the crackdown after a six-month-long undercover operation to identify suspects in the syndicate, including officers, rice mill owners and middlemen, for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices.

A senior CBI officer said FCI’s Deputy General Manager (DGM) Rajiv Kumar Mishra was arrested for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 50,000 from Ravinder Singh Khera, owner of Guru Kripa Rice and Agro Industries, Kharar. The role of senior Punjab Government officers was under the scanner for operating benami godowns outsourced to the FCI, he said.

On those named in the FIR, the officer said 34 were serving officials, three retired, 17 private persons and 20 entities. He said the CBI officials recovered Rs 80 lakh, including Rs 10 lakh from a woman officer which was hidden in a washing machine.

Sources said the agency working on exposing a nexus engaged in the procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrain. It is alleged the accused received bribes from silos operator and rice millers in extending favours during the tendering process as well.

They allegedly cheated farmers by forcing them to sell produce through the syndicate due to which the end consumers were getting substandard grain under the PDS, the CBI said, adding the accused inflated procurement figures in records. The operation was spread across multiple cities including Chandigarh, Delhi, Patiala, Ropar, Sunam, Mohali and Ambala.

‘Unholy nexus’

• CBI working on busting a nexus of officials, rice millers, middlemen indulging in corruption
• FCI DGM Rajiv Kumar Mishra arrested; role of senior Punjab officers under scanner
• 74 named in FIR; 34 serving officials, three retired, 17 private persons and 20 entities

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