They told us the ration was finished, but we now know it was stolen in our name,” says Rajwati Devi, a 62-year-old widow from Meerut’s urban slum, her voice heavy with disbelief and anger. “Why should only poor people suffer while officials and dealers get rich off our hunger?”

Her anguish echoes the sentiment of thousands of families across Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly, Agra and Meerut divisions who have now discovered they were systematically deprived of their rightful food supplies. A damning investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has uncovered one of the most extensive foodgrain frauds in recent memory — a scam in which a single Aadhaar card was fraudulently used to divert subsidised rations to nearly 100 ineligible people, with the collusion of government officials and local ration dealers. Shockingly, even Aadhaar credentials of minors were misused to pad up fake distribution records.

The scam, which reportedly took place between 2015 and 2018, had long remained buried under bureaucratic inaction until February this year, when the state government transferred all 134 pending cases from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to the CID for time-bound investigation.

In less than four months, CID sleuths have cracked open the racket, resolving 110 of these cases and recommending legal and departmental action against several district supply officers (DSOs), Additional District Magistrates (ADMs), and ration shop owners.

CID investigators have revealed a deeply-rooted conspiracy where the Aadhaar authentication system — meant to ensure transparency and accountability — was instead misused to commit fraud on a massive scale.

“In many cases, officials replaced the Aadhaar data of real beneficiaries with that of others, sometimes even minors and then siphoned off the rations,” said a senior CID official on condition of anonymity. “The Government records would still show the name of the genuine beneficiary, so no red flags were raised at the state level.”

What this meant on the ground was starvation and helplessness. “We thought our names had been removed or the supply had stopped. No one told us what was happening,” said 38-year-old Arif Khan from Bareilly. “Now we know our rations were being looted with forged fingerprints and fake Aadhaar uploads. We want the culprits punished publicly.”

The CID has recommended that departmental proceedings be initiated against former Meerut DSO Vikas Gautam and a chargesheet has already been filed in one of the scam cases. Several food inspectors, computer operators and kotedars (ration dealers) have also been found complicit, with further arrests likely.

“Many officers and dealers saw this as an opportunity to get rich off the backs of the poor,” said a senior CID investigator. “They manipulated technology, used the system’s blind spots, and built a network of fake identities.”

The agency has also suggested filing FIRs against a few DSOs, and many ADMs have come under scrutiny for negligence and failure to audit ration distribution properly.

In response to the expose, the State Government is rolling out a new biometric device — the L-1 scanner — across all fair price shops. Principal Secretary and Food Commissioner Ranvir Prasad explained that the device authenticates a person’s fingerprint only if there is live blood flow, preventing the use of silicone fingerprints or other imitation techniques.

“By June 30, all e-PoS machines in the state will be upgraded with L-1-based devices,” Prasad said. “This will significantly reduce identity fraud and ensure that rations reach the real beneficiaries.”

As details of the scam become public, grassroots anger is rising. Small protest gatherings have begun forming outside ration shops and district offices. Handwritten placards read, “Hamare Aadhaar se ration chori, zimmedaron ko saza do” (They stole rations using our Aadhaar – punish the guilty).

In Agra’s Kheragarh block, 29-year-old labourer Sunita Jatav, a mother of four, broke down as she recounted how she was denied rations for two consecutive months during the pandemic. “I sold utensils to feed my children. Now they say my Aadhaar was used to give someone else food? Who will give those days back to me?” Her husband Ramesh demands criminal punishment, “Suspend them, jail them — do what it takes. This is not corruption, it’s betrayal of the poor.”

CID Director General Dipesh Juneja assured that the agency is conducting the investigation with utmost seriousness. “Providing free and fair ration to the poor is not just a scheme, it is a promise. We are identifying every individual who played a role in this scam and strict legal action will be taken to ensure such betrayal is never repeated.”

He added that the CID is working with district administrations to correct beneficiary databases and compensate families that were defrauded.

The magnitude of the scam raises pressing questions about the vulnerabilities in the Public Distribution System (PDS). It also underscores the urgent need for independent audits, real-time transparency tools and citizen participation in food security governance.

As Uttar Pradesh moves to contain the fallout, people like Rajwati Devi wait not just for ration, but for justice, “Hamein roti se zyada ab insaaf chahiye. Warna ye loot kabhi nahi rukegi.” (We need justice more than food now. Otherwise, this plunder will never stop.)