Rajkot:

The 19 accused arrested yesterday along with 2 NAFED and as many GUJCOT officials and a state warehouse manager in connection with the sensational groundnut soil mixing case of Pedhla village in Jetpur taluka of Rajkot district were today produced in a court in Jetpur which allowed 10 days remand of nine of them including the five officials and 5 days of the remaining 8.

SP Rajkot Balram Meena today informed this.

He said that so far a total of 22 accused have been arrested of whom 3 were already handed over to us by the same court on five days remand.

He did not rule out the possibility of some more arrests in the case.

The original complainant of the case and GUJCOT official (Saurashtra zone manager) Magan Zalawadia has also been arrested and made an accused in the case and is now on remand for 10 days.

Meena said that after finding soil, stone and mud in groundnut sacks procured at MSP and kept in godwon number one in Pedhla, Zalawadia had filed the complaint in the night of July 31 quite late even after continuous instructions from higher ups in the administration.

‘We had doubt on him right from the beginning. We had nabbed 3 accused and members of Moti Dhanej Seva Sahkari Mandali which had procured the groundnut and after taking their remand from court when we further inquired we got solid evidence about Zalawadia’s role in the crime. We also learnt that NAFED and GUJCOT officials were also hand in gloves in the matter. Apart from 2 officials of each of the two agencies one warehouse manager has also been nabbed,’ he had said yesterday.

Meena said that the mixing in the groundnut sacks was done at some other place after procurement at the procurement center. He said that more investigation in this regard was own.

DeshGujarat