Enforcement Directorate conducts searches at nine locations in West Bengal PDS scam case

Logo of Enforcement Directorate. Twitter/@dir_ed

The ED initiated the investigation primarily based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the State police on October 23, 2020, on a complaint from Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Ghojadanga Land Customs Station

Kolkata: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is conducting searches at nine places linked to suppliers and exporters located in West Bengal’s Kolkata, Bardhaman, and Habra, in the Public Distribution System (PDS) wheat diversion scam case.

The premises are allegedly connected to Sagar Enterprises and its proprietor Susanto Saha; Samir Kumar Chandra, proprietor of another company; Adarsha International and its proprietor Partha Saha; Mother Annapurna Rice Concern; Cynax Annapurna Udyog Private Limited; Daulat Ram Gupta, proprietor of KG Food Trading; and one Kanchan Som, said an agency official.

The ED initiated the investigation primarily based on a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the State police on October 23, 2020, on a complaint from Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Ghojadanga Land Customs Station.
The case alleged that there was a large-scale diversion of PDS wheat meant for welfare schemes.”The wheat was procured at low prices through unauthorised channels, in collusion with suppliers, licensed distributors, dealers, and middlemen. Large quantities were illegally diverted from the supply chain and aggregated at multiple locations,” said the agency.

To conceal its origin, the accused persons removed or reversed the original gunny bags bearing Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State government markings and refilled them, thereby hiding identifying features and passing off the PDS wheat as legitimate stock for further sale in open market or export.