Confirming this, Superintendent of Police of the Bureau Santosh Patial said that Parkash Chand, a Horticulture Extension Officer posted at Baijnath, was arrested today as his bail was rejected by the court.

Patial said that the horticulture official has been arrested under sections 409, 420, 465, 467, 468 and Section 471 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 120 (B) and Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The SP added that the accused will be produced before the court tomorrow.

The SP highlighted that the first information report (FIR) relating to the apple plantation scam was registered a few days ago. He added that further investigations in the case are in progress, and the involvement of a few more persons cannot be ruled out. The SP said that appropriate action will be taken against those persons who are found to be involved in the scam.

Giving details of the case, Patial said that some farmers of Bara Bhangal panchayat wanted to plant apple rootstocks in 2004, and applied to the Horticulture Department, under the Central government’s Horticulture Technology Mission. A detailed report was prepared by the panchayat and the submitted to the Horticulture Department for approval.

Following this, the department supplied rootstocks of various varieties of apple, including royal, golden and spurs, in thousands, to the panchayat for distribution to farmers. But the rootstocks were not distributed as per norms.