Shillong, Jan. 10: Police are investigating to check whether high-level officials are involved with the public distribution system (PDS) middlemen after the recent seizure of some documents and large quantity of PDS items from a godown of two businessmen in Shillong.
The police have sought clarification from certain banks in Shillong after the bank documents were seized, which had shown that some payments were made to certain officials.
The first case of PDS diversion this year was reported on January 2 when police seized 180 bags of rice from the shop, Shiv Bhandar, owned by Nand Kishore Agarwal and his son Nitish Agarwal at Iew Mawlong in Shillong.
The police also seized Rs 20,000 from Nand Agarwal who had tried to offer it as a bribe to a police officer to hush up the case, only to realise later that he was trapped.
The police later arrested both the Shillong-based businessmen for their involvement in the diversion of food grain and seized 367 bags of rice and 35 bags of sugar from their godown at Iew Mawlong.
Later, based on their interrogation, the police arrested Henry Nonghuloo and his uncle Weston Nonghuloo, a foodgrain wholesaler at Laitumkhrah, for their involvement in the crime.
The police had earlier said Henry Nonghuloo had lifted rice from the Food Corporation of India, Mawlai godown, on December 31 to sell them in the open market with the help of the two businessmen. The price of 180 bags of rice in the open market will be Rs 1.27 lakh.
The bags of rice and sugar were originally meant to be distributed to the fair-price shops in Laitumkhrah, but they were diverted to Iew Mawlong.
The police have questioned the present wholesaler of Laitumkhrah, L. Surong, to get more information on the PDS case, as Weston Nonghuloo's dealership expired in December.
East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner J. Lyngdoh said magistrate M. Diengdoh who is probing the case had sought four more days to complete his investigation.
Earlier, the district administration had given three days to complete the probe into the anomalies of PDS.
"We want to bring the whole matter to a logical conclusion and, hence, more time was given to the magistrate to examine all angles," the deputy commissioner added.
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