Rajkot (Guj), Aug 1 (PTI) Police have registered a case against unnamed officials of NAFED and GUJCOT after groundnuts procured by a state agency and stored at a warehouse in the district were found to be adulterated with stones and soil.

Opposition Congress said there was a large-scale scam in groundnut procurement, and demanded a judicial inquiry.

Some traders had refused to take the delivery of groundnuts they had purchased from a warehouse at Gondal, complaining of adulteration.

The groundnuts were procured by the Gujarat State Co-Operative Cotton Federation (GUJCOT) on behalf of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India(NAFED).

The godown is privately-owned.

Rajkot Rural Superintendent of Police Balram Meena said an FIR was registered today at Gondal police station against unnamed officials of NAFED, GUJCOT, Gujarat State Warehousing Corporation and a private firm involved in quality survey.

The case was registered under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating), he added.

"We are conducting a probe to find out how soil and stones found their way into groundnut bags. We will probe whether the stones and soil were mixed before packing the bags or later," the SP said.

Rajkot collector Rahul Gupta said that six teams, each having a deputy mamlatdar (a revenue officer), a police official and a cameraman, have been set up for the probe.

Around 30,000 sacks, each with 35 kg of groundnuts, are stored at the Gondal godown.

The Congress claimed that some cooperative leaders from Junagadh district had warned the BJP government about the "scam" in groundnut procurement last year but no action was taken.

State Congress chief Amit Chavda alleged that two groundnut warehouses were set on fire to hide procurement of sub-standard stocks.

"Yesterday, adulterated stock was found at a warehouse near Jetpur in Rajkot district. This is a massive scam. We demand that a sitting high court judge should conduct an inquiry," Chavda said.

In February, groundnuts worth Rs 28 crore were gutted in fire at a godown in Gondal tehsil. Another fire at a godown near Rajkot city destroyed a stock worth Rs 3.5 crore.

Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia said the warehouse near Jetpur stored groundnuts worth Rs 17.17 crore, procured by a Junagadh-based cooperative society.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was warned by some members of the society about adulteration, but no action was taken, he alleged.

Agriculture minister R C Faldu, however, claimed that no complaints about quality had been received from traders earlier when NAFED auctioned 4 lakh metric tonnes of groundnuts out of the 10 lakh metric tonnes procured this season.

"I have already asked the officials to probe the issue at Jetpur. We will not spare anyone found guilty," Faldu told reporters in Gandhinagar.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)