A CBI court in Mohali has convicted 14 officials of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and 16 private persons, including rice millers, in the 2004-05 Punjab rice procurement scam, sentencing them to rigorous imprisonment of one to three years, along with fines.The court pronounced the verdict on November 13, the CBI said. All 30 convicts were held guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating under the Indian Penal Code. The 14 FCI officials were also convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.The case relates to the kharif season 2004-05, when substandard rice was accepted as Grade-A at FCI centres in Malerkotla, Jattvibeam and Tapa in Sangrur district. The CBI said this led to wrongful payments to rice millers and financial loss to the FCI.The irregularities surfaced during joint surprise checks by the CBI in September 2005. Laboratory tests of rice samples showed the consignments did not meet the prescribed quality specifications. The CBI registered the case on January 7, 2006, and filed three chargesheets on November 28, 2008. All 14 FCI officials were sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 15,000 each.Six private persons, three each in the Malerkotla and Tapa cases, got three years’ rigorous imprisonment. Fines amounting to Rs 25,000 each were imposed in Malerkotla and Rs 20,000 each in Tapa.Kewal Krishan, a partner in M/s Mahavir Rice Mills, got the lightest sentence: one year’s rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.The remaining private persons got two years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 each. Among the convicted officials in Malerkotla are Technical Assistants Varinder Rajput, Girdari Lal and KP Singh, along with Assistant Managers (Quality Control) Raunaq Ali and RN Sharma.In Jattvibeam, those convicted are Assistant Manager (Quality Control) RC Verma and Technical Assistants Som Pal Singh and KL Gulati. In Tapa, Deputy Manager (Quality Control) Gurmail Singh, Assistant Manager (Quality Control) RS Sirohi, and Technical Assistants Ramesh Kumar, Harinder Singh, Harish Kumar and Satnam Singh were convicted.Among the convicted private individuals in Malerkotla, Harish Kumar and Rajnish Kumar, partners of M/s Shiv Shakti Rice Agro Products, and Rakesh Goyal, partner of M/s RK Agro Tech, were sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment.Ramesh Singla, partner of M/s Shiv Shakti Rice Agro Products, and Narinder Kumar, partner of M/s Satkartar Rice and Agro Mills, were awarded two years’ rigorous imprisonment.In Jattvibeam, Hari Ram and Jiwan Lal, partners of M/s KC Rice Mills, were sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment.In Tapa, Budh Ram, partner of M/s Bansal Rice Mills; Pardeep Sharma, chairman of Sukhanand Rice Udyog Samiti; and Bhushan Kumar, proprietor of M/s Ganga Rice Mills, were awarded three years’ rigorous imprisonment. Those sentenced to two years’ jail include Vinod Kumar, partner of M/s Jai Jwala Rice Mills; Bharat Bhushan, secretary of Dhaliwal Rice Udyog Samiti; Ashok Kumar and Surinder Kumar, partners of M/s Luxmi Rice Mills; and Ramesh Kumar, partner of M/s BID Rice Mills.