Truckload of tomatoes bound for Jaipur from Karnataka goes 'missing'

A Jaipurbound truckload of tomatoes a precious commodity across the country now went missing in what is suspected to be another heist linked to KarnatakaA trader has claimed that he lost touch with the driver and cleaner of his truck which was carrying 11 tonnes of tomatoes from the district headquarters town of Kolar en route to the Rajasthan capital A complaint has been filed with Kolar police in which the trader has alleged that the truck was carrying tomatoes worth Rs 21 lakhRepresentatives at Kolar Agricultural Produce Market Committee from where the produce left pegged the price of tomatoes at Rs 160 per kgAccording to the complaint the truck loaded with 750 crates left the local mandi in Kolar on July 27 and the consignment was scheduled to reach its destination in Jaipur for supply to a local vegetable market thereThe truck which was being tracked through the GPS tracking system had apparently covered around 1800 km since it left Kolar The vehicle was supposed to reach its destination in Jaipur by Saturday night But when it did not do so the trader tried to contact the driver but his phone was switched off a senior police officer saidThe concerned trader then filed a complaint at Kolar police station stating that the truck had gone missingBased on a complaint received from one of the traders based in Kolar we have initiated a preliminary inquiry into the matter No FIR has been registered in the matter yet since we had to verify whether the driver had met with any accident on the way to its destination or if the tomatoes got stolen So an inquiry was initiated and we collected details from the complainant in the matter the police officer saidThe Preliminary inquiry has revealed that the huge consignment of tomatoes which was to be unloaded at Jaipur was apparently delivered at a local vegetable market in Ahmedabad he addedVinay Reddy the trader who sent the tomato consignment said that his father Muni Reddy filed the police complaint after the truck went missingWe loaded 11 tonnes of tomatoes which were packaged in 750 boxes in a truck from Kolar tomato mandi The consignment was to be unloaded at Mohana Sabji Mandi Jaipur by Saturday midnight The vehicle also had an inbuilt GPS tracking system Vinay Reddy owner of SVT traders saidReddy said that he last spoke to the driver around 9 pm on Saturday and he had assured that by 11 pm the consignment would reach the mandi in JaipurHowever in the morning I got to know that the consignment had not reached the market When I tried to contact the driver his phone was also found to be switched off There was no other way to reach him So we had to approach the police here he saidReddy said he then informed his acquaintances in Jaipur and later received information from their local sources that the tomatoes had been sold at AhmedabadWe suspect that these tomatoes were sold off by the driver but we still havent been able to get in touch with him It has also come to notice that the same truck was not used to transport the consignment to Ahmedabad We need to get it verified he saidReddy said that the consignment belonged to three parties and that they were also likely to reach Ahmedabad and file a complaint at the local police station there as wellEarlier this month tomatoes worth Rs 25 lakh were stolen from a farm in Goni Somanahalli village in Belur taluk of Karnatakas Hassan district Thieves allegedly decamped with 5060 bags of tomatoes from a woman farmers agricultural field following which a case of theft was lodged at the Halebeedu police stationIn another such incident a couple from neighbouring Tamil Nadu was arrested by the police for hijacking a truck laden with 25 tonnes of tomatoes in Bengaluru after faking an accident to extort moneyAccording to the police the couple was part of a gang of highway robbers that intercepted Mallesh a farmer from Hiriyur in Chitradurga district at Chikkajala on July 8 They demanded money claiming that the farmers truck had bumped into their carThe farmer was transporting tomatoes in his Mahindra Bolero jeep to Kolar When he refused to pay them the miscreants assaulted him pushed him out of the truck and drove away with the vehicle loaded with 25 tonnes of tomatoesBased on the complaint lodged by the farmer the RMC Yard police tracked the movement of the vehicle and zeroed in on the gangThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever