Vigilance arrests Markfed Senior Branch Officer for causing losses of Rs 1.24 crore*

Accused Markfed officials misappropriated 12,194 wheat bags weighing 6097 quintals

Chandigarh December 7 : Aiming to curb the menace of corruption in the state, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) Punjab on Wednesday arrested a Senior Branch Officer of Markfed Punjab, Rajbir Singh Bains in a misappropriation case for committing embezzlement of 12,194 wheat bags weighing 6,097 quintals in the stock of stored wheat at MRM complex Rajpura, district Patiala. In this case four accused officials including Rajbir Singh Bains have caused huge losses to state exchequer amounting to Rs.1,24,61,658.

Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the state VB said in this regard a case FIR No.7 dated 13-05-2016 under section 409, 120-B of IPC and 13(1) D, 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act had already been registered at VB police station Patiala in which Rajbir Singh Bains, senior branch officer, Markfed, Rajpura, Farid Khan, custodian, MRM complex and Daler Singh, salesman were found responsible for causing this embezzlement. In this case Ashwani Kumar, field officer, open plinth, village Dhindsa, Rajpura has also been nominated during the investigation.

He further added that this case has been registered after surprise checking of Markfed storage godowns along with food and civil supplies department officials at MRM complex, Rajpura and open plinth at Dhindsa. During this checking, the VB team has found that the above mentioned Markfed officials were responsible for misappropriation of 12194 wheat bags weighing 6097 quintals during the check year 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. In this way the above mentioned accused have caused loss of Rs.1,24,61,658 to the state exchequer by misappropriating this wheat stock. Further investigation in this regard was under progress, he added.