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Bihar Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Purnamasi Ram has been accused of fraud and misappropriation in a criminal case filed in connection with a Rs 61 billion scam in the Public Distribution System (PDS).
In the complaint filed by Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha vice-president and CPI-ML leader Nandjee Ram, some others, including the West Champaran district magistrate, have also been accused of being involved in the fraud in the Red Card scheme of the PDS.
The scheme aims to provide food grains, kerosene and sugar to people below the poverty line at specially subsidised rates.
Nandjee Ram has alleged that the scheme, launched in 1997, has not served its stated purpose.
"In West Champaran alone, the government has been supplying 19,000 quintals of wheat and 13,000 quintals of rice every month. However, the accused prevented the commodities from reaching the red card holders by forging the distribution register," he alleged.
He alleged that between August 1997 and January 16, 2002, the state had been defrauded to the tune of Rs 61 billion.
Alleging that the accused have brought about disaffection towards a lawfully established government scheme by breaching public trust, Nandjee Ram has even charged them with sedition.
The case has been filed under sections 406, 408, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120B and 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Names of some employees of the Food and Civil Supplies department and PDS dealers also figure in the complaint filed before the Bagaha sub-divisional judicial magistrate on Tuesday.
Dayanand Dwivedi, another CPI-ML leader, had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the issue in the Patna High Court last year.
While disposing the petition in January this year, the court refrained from commenting on the merits of the case while granting the complainant the liberty to 'institute a complaint before the appropriate magistrate in case action is not taken on the First Information Report (FIR)'.
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