Panaji, Nov 16,2022: Though the Crime Branch of Goa Police on Tuesday claimed that they seized food grains stolen from godowns of the Civil Supply Department, the latter on Wednesday clarified that there is no ‘mismatch’ in their storage and supply.

Speaking to IANS, Civil Supply Director Gopal Parsekar said that they had sought a report of stock from all 11 godowns in the state, which has suggested that there is no mismatch in the records of storage and supply.

“We have not found any shortage (of rice and wheat) in our godowns. Everything is okay,” Parsekar said.

When asked about the claim of Crime branch sleuths that the seized food grains were stolen from godowns of Civil Supply, Parsekar said that he didn’t know about it.

According to Parsekar, their records in all godowns are all well as per ‘storage’ and ‘supply’.

Crime Branch on Tuesday had arrested five persons for allegedly stealing rice and wheat, meant for public distribution, from the Civil Supply Department’s godown for smuggling in Karnataka.

Two other accused persons are absconding, the police had said.

The police seized 761 rice bags and 253 bags containing wheat in this connection.

The raids were conducted at three locations, including Fair Price Shop, in Ponda Taluka of South Goa.

Police said that the accused persons were smuggling rice bags and wheat bags stolen from Civil Supply godowns from Goa.

The arrested persons have been identified as Hazrat Sayyed, Vinay Kumar Gudimani, Prakash Korishetter, Tausif Mulla and Ramkumar.

Accused persons Sachin Naik and Virendra Mardholkar are absconding.

According to police, Prakash Korrishetter was supposed to take the wheat and rice to Belgavi in Karnataka.

In this connection, three different cases were registered under section 380 r/w 120 B, 130 B and 120 IPC.

Civil Supply Minister Ravi Naik has announced that his department will put in place flying squads to keep watch on the functioning of the Public Distribution System.