HC slams vague probe into PDS rice smuggling

Madurai: Taking a serious view of the vague manner in which police investigation was conducted, Madras high court granted anticipatory bail to a man who was booked in connection with smuggling of PDS rice in Kanyakumari district.The court was hearing the anticipatory bail petition filed by Shahul Hameed, who was apprehending arrest in a case registered by Kuzhithurai police. In May, police had seized a lorry with 10,700kg of PDS rice, allegedly belonging to the petitioner. Based on the confession statement of lorry driver Adharsh, lorry owner Karthikeyan and the petitioner were implicated.Justice B Pugalendhi observed that the court had granted interim anticipatory bail to the petitioner by directing him to cooperate with the investigation. Subsequently, a report was filed by police before the court. The police have not collected any material other than the confession statement of the lorry driver.The judge observed that all the accused hail from Kerala. PDS rice meant for public distribution in Tamil Nadu has been illegally transported to Kerala. Though police are capable of recovering PDS rice, they did not conduct any proper inquiry to find out the role played by the accused in commission of the offence. "It shows that in most of the cases, the investigations are being conducted in such a vague manner," then judge said.The judge pointed out that even the petitioner's claim to be a rice merchant with his own rice godown has not been stated in the report. Hence, the judge granted anticipatory bail to the petitioner on certain conditions. The petitioner has to appear before the police every day until further orders and must cooperate with the investigation.