Diversion of public distribution rice detected by people; police investigate

Mangaluru: The general public detected illegal diversion of rice meant for public distribution in an incident that occurred near Kulshekar here on the night of Friday July 5. The captured stock was later handed over to the police by the people.

During late night hours of Friday, the locals observed that rice was being transported in a lorry near Kulshekar along with animal feed. Therefore they intercepted the lorry and on inspection unearthed a racket involved with illegal sale of rice belonging to the government. Seeing the angry people gathering around the lorry, the driver abandoned the vehicle and made good his escape.

The rice was being smuggled in the lorry to unknown destination and around 50 quintals of rice was recovered. The stock was handed over to the police.

The officials of food and civil supply department have been informed of the incident while the cops have undertaken further investigation.

It may be noted that a similar incident had occurred in the past too in which it was found out that rice meant for public distribution was being transported to a private godown.