Fraud by ration shops busted, six held

- Ration shop dealers and NIC employees colluded and showed closing balance of stocks less through online

Kurnool: The Central Crime Station (CCS) cops arrested six persons including two employees of the National Informatics Centre for indulging in fraud. The police presented all the accused before the media at Ved Vyas Auditorium here on Monday. Addressing the media, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ake Ravi Krishna said that the State government had introduced electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) system at ration shops to have a control over the misuse in the supply of essential commodities. The district administration took up an investigation to avoid misuse by the ration dealers, he stated.

The District Supplies Officer (DSO) found that 18 ration shops were involved in fraud. Out of 18 shops, four shops are from Kurnool district, one each from East Godavari and Prakasam and twelve from Visakhapatnam district. He filed a criminal case at Two Town police station in Srisailam on November 3rd, the SP said. Ravi Krishna stated that ration dealer Cherukuri Mallikarjuna of Srisailam approached S Lavanya, a resident of Kurnool, and sought her favour to earn more money through his fair price shop. Lavanya informed him that she is no more working at DSO office but assured him that she will help him after talking to Swapna, who is working at National Informatics Center (NIC) in Hyderabad. Swapna asked Mallikarjuna to pay Rs 10,000 as an advance and a monthly amount of Rs 5,000 for showing the closing balance of stocks as less through online.

Meanwhile, Lavanya also made similar arrangement for 17 ration shops spread in four districts through another ration shop dealer Mallikarjuna, who belong to Lingala Gattu. Ravi Krishna said that Mallikarjuna used to send the collected amount to Lavanya and she in turn transferred money to Swapna’s brother account. Lavanya had transferred Rs 6 lakhs in two installments. Later, Lavanya came in contact with one more NIC official Ajay Kumar Pandey and sent Rs.9.60 lakh through NEFT to his bank account as an advance for one year. Ajay Kumar adjusted the closing balance of stocks belonging to the months of September and October through online.

The CCS DSP Hussain Peera and CI Srinivasa Rao, ASI Nabi Rasool and other staff took up the investigation and arrested all the six accused at Ashok Nagar. Ravi Krishna said that fraud took place in the supply of essential commodities at Kurnool, Anantapur, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari. More fraud cases are likely to come to light after a thorough probe. He appreciated the DSP Hussain Peera and his team and also announced rewards.