Seven, including TDP men, held for duping paddy farmers and AP government
Nellore: Police booked seven persons, including a miller and some middlemen, for cheating farmers and the government while procuring and disposing of paddy on Monday.
The accused include TD followers Kariyavula Madhusudhan Rao alias Madhu Naidu of Manubolu mandal and Gali Jaipal of Sarvepalli.
The other accused are Uppu Padmanabham, 30, of Edagali and Shaik Masthan, 49, of Anikepalli in Venkatachalam mandal, Dakkili Rajakishore, 37, of Kagitalapur in Manubolu mandal, Palagati Mallikarjuna Reddy, 44, of Inamadugu in Kovur mandal and rice miller Bolisetty Srinivasa Rao 49 of Srungarapuram in Bapatla mandal of Guntur district.
Gali Jaipal is at large. It may be recalled that TD leaders supported Jaipal when he raised a hue and cry over the irregularities in the process of paddy procurement a few days back.
Deputy superintendent of Nellore Rural Y. Harinath Reddy briefed mediapersons at Venkatachalam police station on Monday on the arrstes.
According to the DSP, rice miller Srinivasa Rao has been buying paddy from Nellore district through rice brokers Mallikarjuna Reddy and Padmanabham since last few years.
As per the advice of Srinivasa Rao, the two rice brokers have been buying paddy from gullible farmers for much less than Minimum Support Price fixed by the government but supplying the same to the government to obtain MSP and sharing the profits.
Madhu Naidu, Rajkishore, Jaipal and Shaik Masthan have been helping the brokers to identify innocent farmers for procuring paddy and details of their landholdings besides bank accounts. The details are used to supply the paddy to the government on their names and bag the MSP.
Their modus operandi came to light when they submitted details of 18 acres of barren land while supplying paddy cultivated in the land, which was taken on lease by Jaipal at Edagali village in Venkatachalam mandal.
Based on a complaint from Kanupuru, Area Coordinator of DRDA, Venkatachalam police registered a case and the role played by all the accused was detected during the investigation carried out by CI K. Ramakrishna and SI SK Karimullah.
DSP said they have arrested all the accused except Jaipal and a team is formed to nab him.
