In a major development regarding the 2018 fertiliser scam, the Haryana State Crime Branch arrested Jagdeep Singh Brar, the Director of the Haryana State Seed Certification Agency (HSSCA), on Friday. The arrest comes seven years after the scam came to light, and official records reportedly contained incriminating evidence against Brar, leading to his detention. While the police had sought a three-day remand, the court instead sent Brar to 14 days of judicial custody.
The scam dates back to 2018 when Ramkawar, a resident of Jhajjar, filed a complaint alleging fraudulent procurement of agricultural inputs. This involved the Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (HAFED) and the Haryana Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (HLRDC). The complaint led to an inquiry by the chief minister’s flying squad, which uncovered irregularities in the procurement of organic fertilisers by the Haryana Agriculture Department in 2014-15.
The investigation revealed that the department had ordered organic manure through HAFED from various companies. However, subsequent sample tests showed that the supplied product was actually city compost. Despite these findings, payments were processed under the pretext of purchasing high-quality organic manure, violating the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO) of 1985, which caused significant financial losses to the government.
Further irregularities were discovered in 2015-16, when organic manure was again procured through HAFED and the HLRDC headquarters in Panchkula. Initial sample tests failed to meet FCO standards, but correspondence between the Haryana Agriculture Department and the National Organic Farming Center in Ghaziabad exposed manipulation of test results to falsely approve the fertilisers.
The inquiry revealed that officials intentionally altered test reports to favour fertiliser suppliers, resulting in the distribution of substandard products to farmers and causing financial losses to the state government.
The arrest of Brar marks a significant step in the investigation, and authorities are continuing their probe into the broader scope of this scam.
