Prakasam cops bust PDS rice racket, 31 arrested

ONGOLE: During raids conducted against rice millers, Prakasam district police busted a PDS rice racket and arrested 31 persons for illegally transporting ration rice stock worth Rs 1.08 crore on Saturday. The police also seized a punching machine, a weighing machine, stamping, ink, stencils, among others.  

Acting on a tip-off, the police conducted a raid at 5 am on Friday on M/s Vijayasai Krishna Rice Mill, located in Valaparla in Martur mandal. The police seized a truck illegally transporting 600 PDS rice bags. Based on their information, the police also found another 1,260 rice bags. 

Briefing newsmen here, SP Siddharth Kaushal said of the accused, 15 were PDS dealers/ brokers, six were transporters, eight were exporters. During investigation, the police came to know that the PDS rice was bought through some brokers at Rs 12 per kg, which was sold to the rice mills for Rs 14 per kg. 

The millers polished the rice and sold the same to the another broker, who exported the stock for Rs 20 per kg. The accused converted the PDS rice into normal market quality rice by polishing it and sold the rice in the local market for Rs 36 per kg for a profit of Rs 25 lakh.