Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Wednesday arrested a Senior Branch Officer of Markfed Rajbir Singh Bains in a misappropriation case for committing embezzlement of 12,194 wheat bags weighing 6,097 quintals in the stock of stored wheat at MRM complex Rajpura in Patiala district.

In this case, four accused officials, including Rajbir Singh Bains, have caused huge losses to state exchequer amounting to Rs 1,24,61,658.

Spokesperson said that a case, dated May 13, 2016, under sections 409, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 13(1) D, 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act had already been registered at VB police station Patiala in which Rajbir Singh Bains, MRM complex custodian Farid Khan, and salesman Daler Singh were found responsible for causing this embezzlement.

In this case, field officer of open plinth in Dhindsa village in Rajpura, Ashwani Kumar, has also been nominated during the investigation.

“This case has been registered after surprise checking of Markfed storage godowns along with Food and Civil Supplies Department officials at MRM complex, Rajpura, and open plinth at Dhindsa. During this checking, the VB team has found that the mentioned Markfed officials were responsible for misappropriation of 12,194 wheat bags weighing 6097 quintals during the check year 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016,” said the spokesperson.

Spokesperson added, “In this way, the accused officials have caused a loss of Rs 1,24,61,658 to the state exchequer by misappropriating this wheat stock.” Further investigation in this regard was under progress.