9 JAKFED officers, Shree Cement chief booked in graft case

Nine officers of JAKFED, including its Managing Director, and the proprietor of Shree Cement were booked Tuesday in connection with a case involving bulk purchase of cement at highly exorbitant rates, causing loss to the state exchequer, officials said.

They were booked after a preliminary probe into the allegations that the officials had made bulk purchase of cement without any demand in lieu of pecuniary benefit and had dumped the stock at a warehouse, a spokesperson of the Anti-Corruption Bureau said.

It caused a loss of Rs 15 per bag on account of carriage charges and a contract for loading and unloading of cement valuing Rs 30 lakh was also allotted illegally after obtaining gratification, he said.

JAKFED or Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation procured the cement at inflated cost of Rs 36.69 per bag, which was higher than the rate at which store procurement department procured the same and on this count, loss to the tune of Rs 7,04,448 was inflicted upon the state exchequer, he said.

Investigations also revealed that the profit margins and sale margins were also increased beyond the permissible limits through which gains worth lakhs were obtained and usurped, he added.

"In this way the officers and officials of JAKFED by abuse of their official position, by acting in league with each other and with the supplier firms, for their own pecuniary gains, purchased the cement at exorbitant rates and caused huge loss to state exchequer," the spokesperson said.

Among those named in the case are Ravinder Gupta, the then MD of JAKFED, Mukesh Damral, Senior Manager, Puran Chand, Manager Personnel, Naveen Chander, Chief Accountant and Girdhari Lal Abrol, General Manager.