Coming out strongly against the arrest of its members, on charges of trespassing into the godowns, ACAUT said it was just an attempt of the state government to cover up the scam, and demanded for a CBI inquiry to deliver justice and expose the can of worms.
In a press note, ACAUT media cell, while condemning the arrests, said that the chief minister and F&CS department were allegedly involved in the multi-crore PDS rice scam. Terming it as “an ironical turn of events”, ACAUT said the state government rather than arresting the alleged criminals responsible for siphoning off thousands of crores worth of PDS items meant for the poor Naga public over the decades, had instead arrested ACAUT members on flimsy grounds of trespassing
Justifying its stand, ACAUT said the question of trespassing did not arise since ACAUT and CCN members entered the premises with due permission from the residents in the premises. Condemning the outrageous actions of the state government, ACAUT said it (government) had defied the common sense of justice, when all its force and state machinery were put into task to make the arrest on false and flimsy grounds, but not arrest/act on serious issues of multi-crore corruption.
“The real criminals run scot free making a mockery of the people of Nagaland setting a frightening precedent that the government can act dictatorially and misuse its power to cover its corruption activities,” ACAUT stated.
ACAUT questioned the government as to why it was “hell bent on protecting Mr. Tinku Sethi and Mr. Nirmal Jain, the accused super stockiest”, even after being caught red handed for siphoning off PDS rice and not taking cognizance of the prima facie evidences provided by Concern Citizens of Nagaland.
On the clarification given by F&CS department that the PDS rice were repacked in the synthetic bags to be sent to different districts, ACAUT however said that its members along with the 13 villages council members during market inspection, found out that the same bags of repacked rice from F&CS godowns were being sold at approximately Rs. 35 per kilo in the open market.
ACAUT has questioned the legality of repackaging PDS rice without label, trademark, manufacturing date, name of the manufacturer and address, ISI mark and FSSAI license no. which it said was mandatory under Food Safety and Standard Act of 2006.
ACAUT also questioned the credibility of the stockiest in whose names the godowns were being run.
Meanwhile, ACAUT also said as per documents available, it was found that the stockiest R.Z lotha did not even possess the Food Safety & Standard (FSSA) license to operate and carry out repackaging under M/s R.Z. Lotha at Kevijau colony Dimapur.
In this regard ACAUT questioned the audacity of the R.Z Lotha “to file an FIR for trespassing into his illegal PDS godown”.
Further, ACAUT demanded the unconditional release of its members, who were denied bail, saying they were arrested on baseless and false allegations.
ACAUT also demanded immediate arrests of PDS scam accused– Tinku and Nirmal and also R.Z. Lotha, for false accusation that led to arrest of innocent public.
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