The revenue department has attached and sealed properties worth Rs 4.73 crore of the absconding Ghorpade brothers as part of an ongoing investigation in the siphoning off of Fair Price Shop (FPS) food
The revenue department has attached and sealed properties worth Rs 4.73 crore of the absconding Ghorpade brothers as part of an ongoing investigation in the siphoning off of Fair Price Shop (FPS) foodgrains, collector Deependra Singh Kushwah said Sunday. However reliable sources said the properties are estimated to be worth around Rs 175 crore.
Speaking to The Asian Age, the collector said that the properties situated in Sinnar, Igatpuri, Dindori and Nashik tehsils of Nashik district had been attached. The action was taken under the directions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 (MCOCA) court. The sealed properties include petrol pumps, a number of flats and vehicles, and plots in prime locations.
The names of the absconding persons have been given as Sampat Ghorpade, Chitra Sampat Ghorpade, Arun Ghorpade, Vishwas Ghorpade, Madan Pawar and Ramesh Patankar.
In March early this year, the FPS rice sent to Bhiwandi from Sinnar in Nashik tehsil was allegedly looted. The driver had lodged a complaint with Wadiwarhe police station in Igatpuri tehsil saying his truck was looted by unidentified robbers.
The police and revenue officials began investigations and found that the rice had been sold to a rice mill in Ghoti town of Igatpuri tehsil, also known as the rice market of Maharashtra.
The police and revenue departments then began investigations and discovered that Sampat Ghorpade had several cases filed against him in Nashik, Padgah and Bhiwandi.
“A case was registered in June first. All cases were clubbed together and we sought the IG’s permission to apply Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 (MCOCA) as this appeared to be a fit case of organised crime,” Wadiwarhe police inspector Manohar Patil said. Earlier, the police had registered cases of blackmarketing.
The properties were seized by the respective tehsildars in Nashik, Igatpuri, Dindori and Sinnar tehsils, sources said. More properties are likely to be sealed and officials are noting down the seized properties. The property extracts have been stamped with the government stamp so that the property cannot be sold, sources said.
