Midnight sting by farmer union leader at Markfed godown in Punjab’s Abohar leads to suspension of 3 officials

According to Sukhjinder Singh Rajan, a union leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union Rajewal, he and several other farmers reached the Markfed godown located on bypass of the Abohar-Fazilka Road on Monday night and saw the godown lying open and a tractor-trolley loaded with wheat. The sacks had allegedly been opened and loose wheat had been loaded onto the vehicle with a capacity to hold about 100 quintals of grain.

“I made a noise and the driver of the tractor-trolley tried to run me over. He managed to escape from the location, however, we chased him and managed to catch hold of him. He was taken to the police station and the tractor-trolley was also confiscated,” Rajan said.

An FIR was lodged against Avi Kumar Manchanda, Field Officer (General), Chinderpal, the driver Sher Singh, and 7-8 unidentified people under sections 331(4) and 305(a) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on charges of house trespass and theft in a government property.

“We have arrested the driver and are investigating the matter. We are collecting details about the total stock and the persons responsible for stock management,” Manjinder Singh, Station House Officer, City 1 police station, said.

Manchanda and Markfed assistant field officers Steffy and Robin were suspended on Tuesday evening. As per their suspension letter, they will be given a subsistence allowance and report to Markfed headquarters in Chandigarh.

On Wednesday afternoon, a team from Markfed’s Chandigarh office came to Abohar to inquire about the incident. The team was still in the city till the time of filing this report.

“It was surprising that the godown had no cameras installed inside. There was very poor light inside the godown…this must have been going on for a long while. We had information about this hence we decided to do a sting operation and found the truth,” Rajan added.

Sandeep Jakhar, the suspended Congress MLA from Abohar, took to X to comment on the incident. “State of affairs…Last night at the Markfed godown in Abohar, a tractor trolley was apprehended stealing wheat meant for the PDS by Sukhjinder Singh and his team with the help of the police. Now the question is, for how long has this theft been going on, who all are involved, what is the modus operandi & who all get a cut & the biggest question is, how will this loss (which runs into tons) be accounted for..multiply this by the number of godown’s & well…according to sources, it has been going on for some time now…,” Jakhar said. “Just yesterday, there were full page ads of Corruption free Punjab in all newspapers, well, Bhagwan Mann saab, please ask the Vigilance Bureau to investigate, somehow they missed this scam,” he added in the post.