Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa today has granted liberty to the prime accused in the food gate scheme Sachin Naik to file a petition before the lower court pleading to discharge from the case.
The directions came after Naik withdrew his petition from HC seeking to quash FIR registered against him in the food grain scam.
The South Goa, District Sessions Court, recently quashed the order of the District Collector to hand over the seized grains to Fair Price Shops (FPS), and the accused has now applied for the release of the food grains claiming ownership over the same.
Borkar had filed an application before the High Court of Bombay at Goa with a prayer to quash the three FIRs filed against him in the pilferage scam.
In its three orders, the court has directed the Crime Branch of the police to release a large quantity of rice and wheat that were seized during raids conducted in November.
The Crime Branch of Goa Police claimed that they had seized food grains stolen from godowns of the Civil Supply Department. However, Civil Supply Minister Ravi Naik later clarified that there was no ‘mismatch’ in their storage and supply.
The police had seized 754 rice bags and 253 bags (50 kg each) containing wheat from three places, valued at Rs 7,52,000. Three cases were filed by the police in this connection.
It may be recalled that on November 14, the Crime Branch had raided several locations, mainly in Ponda taluka and seized as many as 581 rice bags and 256 wheat bags along with other grains worth nearly Rs 10 lakh. The grains were reportedly siphoned out of the Civil Supplies warehouses in Sanguem, Ponda and Panaji.
