A special CBI court in Mohali has convicted 30 people, including 14 Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials and 16 private rice millers, in three cases linked to the 2004-05 Punjab rice procurement scam. The court sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment ranging from one to three years along with fines on Friday.
The cases relate to alleged collusion between FCI officials and private rice millers during the 2004-05 kharif procurement season. The accused accepted substandard rice as Grade-A stock at FCI centres in Malerkotla, Sunam and Tapa in Sangrur district, resulting in payments to millers for consignments that did not meet prescribed quality standards and causing financial loss to the corporation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) detected the irregularities during joint surprise checks in September 2005. Laboratory tests of rice samples found that the consignments failed to meet the prescribed specifications. The agency registered the case on January 7, 2006, and filed three separate chargesheets on November 28, 2008.
In the Malerkotla case, the court convicted 10 people — five FCI officials and five millers. The officials, including three technical assistants and two assistant managers (quality control), received two-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹15,000 each. Among the millers, Harish Kumar, Rajnish Kumar and Rakesh Goyal received three years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹25,000 each. Ramesh Singla and Narinder Kumar were sentenced to two years and fined ₹20,000 each.
In the Sunam case, six people, three FCI officials and three millers were convicted. The officials received two years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹15,000 each. Kewal Krishan was sentenced to one year and fined ₹10,000, while Hari Ram and Jiwan Lal received two years’ imprisonment and a fine of ₹20,000 each.
The Tapa case saw 14 convictions, including six FCI officials and eight private persons. All six officials received two-year imprisonment and a fine of ₹15,000 each. Budh Ram, Pardeep Sharma and Bhushan Kumar were sentenced to three years and fined ₹20,000 each. The remaining five private convicts received two-year imprisonment and a fine of ₹20,000 each.
In an earlier verdict in the same procurement scam, a special CBI court in Mohali sentenced five people in the Jalalabad case. Two millers, Amit Kumar and Sanjay Kumar Juneja, received four years’ rigorous imprisonment each for cheating and criminal conspiracy. Former FCI officials Raman Lal Meena, Sanjiv Kumar and Rajnish Kumar received one year and nine months each for causing evidence to disappear. The court acquitted 12 others in that case.