FCI scam: CBI court frames charges against three

A CBI court has framed charges against a deputy general manager and a manager-rank officer of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), along with the owner of a Chandigarh-based agro firm, for allegedly accepting and giving a bribe of ₹50,000 in 2023.

The accused are Rajeev Kumar Mishra, deputy general manager, FCI, regional office, Chandigarh; Satish Verma, manager (QC), FCI, divisional office, Chandigarh, and Ravinder Singh Khaira, owner of Guru Kripa Rice and Agro Industries, Lubhangarh, Kharar, Punjab.

Charges against the trio have been framed under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 7, 7(b), 7A, 8, 11, 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

They were arrested as part of a probe into a larger FCI scam unearthed by CBI.

An FIR was registered on January 10 in New Delhi against 74 people and entities, including 34 serving and three retired officers of the FCI, 17 private individuals, 20 rice mills and grain merchants, and raids were launched at over 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi as a corruption racket involving FCI officials of various ranks, rice millers, grain merchants and middlemen in the procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains across several parts of north India was uncovered.

CBI got information that FCI officers in conspiracy with rice millers were covering up shortages in stocks and were accepting low quality foodgrains, which were being transported to across the country.

In Chandigarh, the agency got a tip-off that Khaira was going to pay bribe to Mishra on January 10, 2023. Hence, the agency laid a trap and arrested Khaira for allegedly paying bribe to Mishra for favours in his official work. The team then visited Mishra’s office, where he confessed to accepting the bribe, and the money packet was found in his car, the investigation mentions.

On the day of trap, Mishra was on earned leave and he attended office only to obtain the bribe, as per CBI.

Probe revealed that Mishra was the overall in-charge of quality control section of the Punjab regional office in Chandigarh and was posted since August 2022. He was to supervise and control all activities of quality control of FCI depots of Punjab region, including Kurali.

It added that from October to December 2022, Mishra conducted 31 inspections at different depots. He conducted a joint inspection of FSD, Kurali, in December 2022 and samples from rice delivered by M/s Gurukripa Rice and Agro Industries were collected under his supervision. During collection of samples, Verma analysed them and submitted report.

Stating that there was enough evidence against the three, CBI had filed a chargesheet.