Sweet profiteering: 4.5 tons of ‘illegally acquired’ sugar seized

The commodity was allegedly sold to a trader by Utility Stores Corporation officials.


Muhammad Sadaqat August 22, 2011

HARIPUR:


The Haripur police claimed to have seized over 4.5 tons of sugar from a warehouse owned by a local trader here on Saturday evening. The sugar was allegedly sold to the trader by Utility Stores Corporation (USC) officials.


The seized sugar was supposed to be sold at subsidised rates at different outlets in Haripur and its peripheries.

Acting on an intelligence report on the illegal sale and transfer of a large consignment of sugar, the police raided Nehmat Ali Khan’s warehouse in Mohalla Makhan Colony and arrested four people as they were offloading two trucks of sugar.

However, neither USC officials nor the owner of the warehouse were among those arrested.

According to the police, the 4,450 kilograms of seized sugar were packed in 410 USC-stamped packets of five kilograms each and 48 similarly marked 50-kilgoram sacks.

The police have also taken a truck into custody.

Sohail Khan, Akmal Jan, Muhammad Arif and Arif Khan were the men arrested. The four men, a truck driver and three labourers, confessed that the commodity was supposed to be sold at subsidised price and was illegally sold to Khan. They also disclosed the names of USC officials who had sold the sugar to Khan.

However, none of them had been arrested at the time this report was filed.

The market price of sugar is Rs70 per kilogram, while the subsidised price at Utility Stores Corporationoutlets is Rs55 per kilogram.

According to informed sources, the owners of several outlets are involved in illegally selling sugar to local traders, depriving the common man of cheap sugar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22nd,  2011.

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