1 held in Sheohar for 9-crore paddy procurement scam

Patna: The economic offence unit (EOU) sleuths with the help of local police arrested a government employee from Abhirampur Bairia under

Piprahi

police station in Sheohar district on Thursday for his alleged involvement in the paddy procurement-related scam of around Rs9 crore.

EOU additional superintendent of police (

ASP

)

Shushil Kumar

said Rakesh Roshan, procurement in-charge of Piprahi block, was arrested from his village residence. He said Rakesh was a contractual government employee at block level.

Kumar said Rakesh's name surfaced during the investigation of a case in which millowner

Raju Kumar Singh

is the prime accused.

He said Raju was arrested in Patna a week back. "Raju had submitted to the EOU receipts and other documents with fake truck registration numbers for investigation related to the paddy fraud worth Rs8.92 crore. When verified, the documents were found forged," Kumar said, adding that Raju after his arrest revealed that Rakesh and two other government officials in Sheohar had helped him in preparing the forged documents. The ASP said the two officials were yet to be nabbed.

Raju had also procured paddy from Piprahi in the past few years but did not return the rice after milling.

He said a named FIR was lodged with the EOU in Patna last year in which he was the prime accused, but investigation found the involvement of several other persons.

The ASP also said a separate FIR was lodged with the EOU 10 days back for submitting forged documents.

Apart from Sheohar, EOU sleuths are also probing paddy procurement cases in Nalanda, Muzaffarpur, Supaul, Darbhanga, Araria and a few other districts, the ASP added.