The Crime Branch (CB) has exposed a major food grain transportation scam as nearly 1014 gunny bags stamped by the government were recovered in separate raids that lasted for around 20 hours. Five persons including one from Hubballi have been arrested while two others are on the run.
Working on a lead for over a week, the CB formed three teams -- each headed by a police inspector -- to raid the premises at Curti, Kundaim and Borim and another batch of officers was sent to Hubballi to apprehend Prakash Korishettar.
“We were working on a lead that the huge quantity of wheat and rice, meant for distribution to ration card holders, are being smuggled out of Goa. Subsequently, we formed four teams to crack the case,” Additional Superintendent of Police Rajendra Desai said.
The value of the recovered gunny bags, weighing around 50,700 kg, is estimated at around Rs 12.67 lakh. In the first raid at Curti, the raiding team swooped down on a Karnataka-registered truck that carried 127 rice bags and 170 wheat bags, and a Goa-registered jeep laden with 77 rice bags. These bags were allegedly stolen from the godowns of Civil Supplies in Ponda, Sanguem and Panaji.
The truck bearing registration number KA-29-C-0812 was seized while it was en route to Karnataka. Hazrat Ali Sayyed of Carambolim, Vinay Kumar R Gudimani and Prakash K, both hailing from Karnataka were arrested whereas Sachin Naik, who allegedly runs a fair price shop, managed to give the cops a slip.
In the following raid at Borim, the team seized a GA-05-T-6501 Bolero pick-up that contained 227 rice bags and 43 wheat bags. Driver Tousif Mulla has been taken into custody.
Another 330 jute bags of rice and 40 bags of wheat were seized from two other Goa-registered trucks at Kundaim where Ram Kumar, hailing from Bihar was arrested.
Mulla was re-arrested in a second FIR against him. ASP Desai said that a massive hunt to trace the whereabouts of Sachin Naik Borkar and Virendra Mardolkar has been launched.
