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Many skeletons tumble out
Police indentified that 43 of the 46 ration shop dealers in the town were involved in the scam. Police are also searching for 10 persons who helped the dealers.
Fake ration card scam
- So far 27 members arrested
- 13,248 tonnes rice worth Rs 26.50 crore siphoned off
- Aadhaar numbers seeded with ration cards of non-existent persons
Gudivada (Krishna): The police have so far arrested 27 members in connection with fake ration card scam here. Speaking to media here on Thursday, Gudivada DSP Ankinedu Prasad has promised credible, transparent and impartial investigation into the scam. While three were arrested earlier, 11 were arrested on Wednesday and 13 were arrested on Thursday.
Police indentified that 43 of the 46 ration shop dealers in the town were involved in the scam. Police are also searching for 10 persons who helped the dealers.
It may be noted that the ration dealers instead of surrendering the cards of deceased and migrated persons, drew ration since 2005. The fake ration card scam surfaced as TDP government constituted committees to weed out bogus beneficiaries and started seeding Aadhaar number with ration cards. As Aadhaar number of each beneficiary was to be linked to the ration card, the dealers resorted to malpractices to generate Aadhaar numbers for bogus cards in their possession.
The process was started by one Srinivasa Sharma, son of a ration dealer C Satyanarayana. He approached Muralidhar who was working as data entry operator at Guntur MRO office. Muralidhar secured Aadhaar numbers from the data base and seeded it with fake ration cards. Srinivasa Sharma collected Rs 1100 for each unit from 20 PDS dealers in the town. He in turn gave Rs 500 to 700 for each unit to Muralidhar for providing Aadhaar numbers. In all Muralidhar used 6,000 Aadhaar IDs for linking with 700 fake ration cards. Similarly, another dealer P Satyanarayana made a deal with Parthasarthi for securing Aadhaar enrolment IDs to seed with fake ration cards in dealers’ possession. Satyanarayana gave Rs 2.25 lakh to secure 3,700 Aadhaar IDs for 900 fake ration cards.
During the recent elections, Satyanarayna appealed to the dealers to support YSRCP. Some dealers, who were supporters of TDP, brought this matter to TDP leader Ravi Venkateswara Rao. Venkateswara Rao brought the issue to notice of the Chief Minister, the Collector and the RDO.
Acting on the complaint of Gudivada MRO Kumar that fake Aadhaar numbers were being used for ration cards the police launched investigation. The dealers met Venkateswara Rao and handed over 4,500 fake ration cards in their possession and pleaded him to resolve the matter. Venkateswara Rao reportedly surrendered the cards to the RDO.
The magistrate sent the accused to 14-day remand. Criminal cases were also filed against Civil Supplies Deputy MRO David Raju and VRO Shyam.
MRPS district vice-president Velpula Nagababu alleged that 13,248 tonnes rice worth Rs 26.50 crore was siphoned off by using 5,500 fake ration cards during the past ten years.
