Bihar forms SIT to probe paddy scam

FOUR YEARS after a paddy scam was exposed in Bihar, the state government has set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the cases of alleged swindling of nearly Rs 1,500 crore public money between 2011 and 2015. The SIT was formed on Patna High Court’s order. Addl DGP (CID) Vinay Kumar will head the seven-member SIT, it was informed.

The Indian Express carried a series of reports —“Grain of Untruth” — in May 2013 on the state government staring at a loss of more than Rs 500 crore for just 2011-12 fiscal, as millers failed to deposit government rice in Food Corporation of India godowns on behalf of the state food corporation.
As per the agreement, a miller had to deposit 67 per cent of rice in advance to receive paddy for processing; but a large number of millers did not do so, allegedly in connivance with officials.

Civil society group Nagrik Adhikar Manch later filed a PIL, alleging that the scam incurred loss of nearly Rs 14,000 crore for the exchequer in five years from 2010-11.