Case against 2 officials for pilfering subsidised urea

CBI has registered a case against an official of Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) and two others for allegedly pilfering subsidised urea worth Rs 2.41 crore meant for farmers in Kerala.
A case of cheating and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Gopala Krishnan, then Senior Officer Incharge IFFCO, Akhil T Gopi, then Field Officer Incharge (Trainee), Kerala State Cooperative Marketing Federation (Marketfed) and CG Pauly, a transport contractor in Thrissur (Kerala).
The trio allegedly entered in a criminal conspiracy and diverted 1,096 metric ton of subsidised urea priced at Rs 5,250 per metric ton, meant for farmers, to industrial units which were paying a much higher rate for it as industrial urea was being sold at five times the subsidised rates, CBI spokesperson said.

"It was alleged that the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was giving subsidy of around Rs 22,000 per metric tons(MT) of urea and after subsidy the farmers would get the same at the rate of Rs 5,250 per metric ton. The objective of giving subsidy to urea was to help the farmers with affordable price and to boost agricultural production," CBI spokesperson R K Gaur said.
It is alleged that Gopi in connivance Krishnan and Pauly had allegedly submitted bogus bills in the names of 31 cooperative societies in and around Thrissur showing the supply of urea to these societies without actually doing so, he said.

The trio allegedly diverted the urea to some industrial companies for illegal monetary benefits as the price of the Industrial Urea was around Rs.27,000 per ton.

"During the period from April, 2015 to January, 2016 around 1096 Mts of urea have allegedly been misutilised by raising bogus bills in favour of these Cooperative Societies. An alleged loss of Rs 2.41 crore by way of subsidies for diverted urea was caused to Government Exchequer," he said.
Gaur said searches were conducted at six places in Thrissur at the premises of accused which led to recovery of several incriminating documents.
IFFCO spokesperson told PTI that the official has been suspended after information about the case was received and a departmental inquiry has been ordered.