Waraseoni (Balaghat): The Waraseoni police have busted a gang involved in stealing paddy from open camps and warehouses and selling it to rice millers, official sources said on Thursday.
Five rice thieves, a truck owner and two truck drivers were arrested.
The rice millers used to procure stolen rice at a lower price from the thieves.
Assistant sub-inspector Tarun Sonekar said Palash Somani of Akash Industries atMehndiwadaKhapa lodged a complaint that 600 bags of rice and paddy worth Rs 2 lakh had been stolen from his warehouses.
On the grounds of the complaint, when the police began to inquire into the case, they seized three trucks filled with stolen paddy, but the accused fled.
The police continued to chase them and laid their hands on some accused. The accused identified themselves as Durgesh, Baheshwar, Deepak, Monish and Raj Kumar, residents of Mehandiwada, the police said.
The police also caught a truck owner who was identified as Pranay Agarwal, resident of Nawegaon under Khairlanji police station in Waraseoni.
Apart from that, the police arrested two truck drivers – one was from Uttar Pradesh and the other from Waraseoni. Another truck driver is absconding, the police said.
All the arrested accused were sent to jail, the police said, adding that some of them worked as labourers in the open camp rice warehouses and in rice mills.
The Rice Millers’ Association made a complaint to the sub-divisional magistrate, the police and other senior officials of the district administration that rice had been stolen from open camps and warehouses. But the administration kept mum over it.
