Nanded businessman in enforcement directorate net in multi-crore scam

NAGPUR: Ajay Baheti, a businessman from Nanded, was arrested by the Nagpur unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday. The court has remanded him in eight day custody of ED.
Baheti was arrested in a multi-crore scam involving a section of Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials.
Though the initial amount of embezzlement was pegged at Rs four crore, the scam may go up to almost Rs100 crore.The scam involved 3,000 ration shops and 28 FCI and private godowns in Nanded and Hingoli.
It’s learnt Baheti, a law graduate, was booked by Nanded police before ED registered an offence against him in May after his involvement in misappropriating subsidized grains came to fore.
The grains, released by the FCI for control shops, were allegedly diverted in bulk quantities to his firm M/s Agro Anaj Limited before being dispatched to different markets, retail chains, malls and such places at higher prices.
The latest arrest is the fourth this year by the ED which had taken three more into custody in another case.
It is leant, ED had issued a summon to Baheti for interrogation and recording statement but later placed him under arrest as he was not cooperating with the probe team.