Mangalore: In a raid that has unearthed a major scam in the Department of Food and Civil Supplies, the Lokayukta officials on March 2, Saturday night have arrested three officials of the Department on the charges of fraudulent practices.

The arrested are  food and civil supplies district manager Muralidhar Rao, Shaktinagar godown manager Puttalingaiah and Beltangady manager Jeevandar Ajari. It  is said the three were involved in the task of diverting the rice and wheat supplied for distribution to fair price shops to flour mills. It is said they used to get cash in return and also cheap quality rice and wheat which is then sent to the PDS.

Puttalingaiah and Jeevandhar used to hand over a per centage of their earnings thus to Muralidhar. There is suspicion that similar practices were resorted to in other places of the district.

The Lokayukta sleuths during their raid have also seized a cash of Rs 44,000. All three were produced before the magistrate and remanded in judicial custody for three days.

Lokayukta SP Mohandas, DySP Vittaldas Pai and other personnel were in the raiding team.