Police and supply department officials, acting on a tip-off, seized over 1,500 quintals of rice and wheat after raiding two unauthorised warehouses in the Sakchi and Golmuri police station areas on Friday.

The seized foodgrains were meant for distribution among people in the below poverty line (BPL) category under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme and had been brought to the steel city from Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouses in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

One of the warehouses is situated behind the Kerala Samajam Model School in the Sakchi police station area, while the other is located near Howrah Bridge along the Kalimati Road in the Golmuri police station area.

Special officer (rationing), East Singhbhum, Naveen Kumar who led the raids said both the warehouses belong to Sanjay Mohnani, who is absconding.

“At the warehouse in Sakchi, there were 1,100 sacks, mostly of rice. At the Golmuri warehouse, the quantity of rice and wheat could not be ascertained as the foodgrains had been piled up loose. We have sealed the Sakchi warehouse and are in the process of sealing the one at Golmuri,” Kumar told The Telegraph Online.

He pointed out that from both the warehouses, the authorities had seized a large number of stickers that had been removed from the government-supplied wheat and rice.

“The stickers mention details of the FCI warehouse from where the foodgrains had been brought and the quantity. We have seized the stickers for making further investigation into the racket,” Kumar said.

During the raid which started around 1pm on Friday, the supply department team nabbed two associates of Mohnani.

One of associates told the Sakchi police that Mohnani was running the racket for the past decade, but business had picked up in the last three months.

One of Mohnani’s staffers, who is yet to be formally arrested, said: “He would collect foodgrains provided by the government at subsidised rates for people belonging to the BPL category and sell them in the open market. He had taken the two warehouses on rent only three months ago after the Centre started giving people belonging to the category rice and wheat at a subsidised rate of Rs 1 per kg when the pandemic began spreading.”

Kumar said he would lodge two FIRs with the Sakchi and Golmuri police stations and hand over the two associates, who are now in the administration’s custody, to the police for further investigation.