Hyderabad Court rejects bail pleas of food officials booked in corruption case

The accused allegedly sold wheat bags to agents and traders illegally last year

HYDERABAD: In the Rs1.78 billion wheat scam, the Hyderabad Special Anti-Corruption Court rejected on Thursday the bail applications of food officials and private persons after which the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested two persons from outside the court, including one of the 17 food officials charged in the FIRs.

Sanghar district ACE lodged six separate FIRs against food officials and 100 private persons last week. Food Department Deputy Director Ali Asghar Naich, Sanghar District Food Controller (DFC) Muhammad Munawar Arain, Assistant Food Controller Jam Abid Ali and several in-charges and food inspectors deputed at some 40 food centres in Sanghar have been booked.

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DFC Arain confirmed while talking to The Express Tribune that their bails have been rejected. He told that they have not still filed bail plea in Sindh High Court because they could not get copy of the Anti-Corruption Court’s order. Still the ACE failed to arrest the accused.

The food officials allegedly sold wheat bags to agents and traders illegally last year. The provincial government through the food department distributes the bags, which are also called gunny bags or gunny sacks, among wheat farmers for official wheat procurement. Sanghar was reportedly allocated 1.7 million wheat bags of 100 kilogramme each in the previous year.

Sindh government bought wheat in 2018 at the rate of Rs1,300 per 40kg from the farmers. However, taking advantage of the government’s procurement delay, traders and agents bought wheat at around Rs1,000 to Rs1,100 per 40 kg rate from the farmers and later sold the same wheat to the government at Rs1,300 rate.

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Under the law, the food department cannot distribute or sell empty wheat bags to traders because the bags are meant for distribution among genuine wheat growers.

ACE Sanghar Circle Officer Yar Muhammad Rind when asked, did not disclose the names of the two arrested persons. He avoided to explain why the food officials have not been arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2019.