Bathinda, Oct. 27 -- As many as five cases have been registered this month in different districts against at least 15 persons, including arhtiyas, rice millers and transporters, for trying to sell paddy purchased from other states at low prices in Punjab mandis on the minimum support price (MSP), officials familiar with the development have said. Among the south Malwa districts where such instances have been reported are Bathinda, Ferozepur, Muktsar, Faridkot and Fazilka. Officials confirmed that in most of the cases, paddy was bought by unscrupulous elements from Hanumangarh in Rajasthan. A section of arhtiyas and rice shellers are said to have been colluding with their agents to buy the non-basmati rice at cheaper rates from farmers and pushing it to the Punjab mandis for hefty earnings by selling it on the MSP. Punjab Mandi Board secretary Ramvir Singh said at least three such FIRs were in his knowledge. He said field inputs suggested that the unauthorised movement of paddy from other places to Punjab had reduced remarkably. "Teams of officials are closely monitoring 22 points on the inter-state borders to ensure that no such paddy enters the Punjab mandis. Besides strict legal action against the accused, licenses of rice millers and arhtiyas found involved in the malpractice will be revoked," he added. An official said that one such FIR was registered at the Nehianwala police station in Bathinda on October 13 wherein a commission agent (arhtiya) Deepak Goyal and tractor trolley driver Mandeep Singh were booked for "illegally" bringing in paddy from Rajasthan. A similar case was registered at Mamdot in Ferozepur against Gobind, Ramesh Kumar and Lovepreet from Hanumangarh under Sections 318 (4) (cheating) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). In the same matter, Manpreet Singh of Fazilka and an arhtiya, Major Singh, were also booked for allegedly pushing at least two trolleys laden with paddy into mandis in Ferozepur. In Muktsar, an FIR was registered at Lakhewali police station on October 20 against two persons from the management of Royal Rice Mills as officials of PUNSUP, a state agency engaged in the paddy procurement, found more than 40,000 rice bags which were not released by the authorities for milling. In Faridkot, six persons, including five from Hanumangarh, were booked in an FIR registered at Kotkapura police station on October 11. They were trying to sneak in paddy from Rajasthan, officials said. Similarly, an FIR was registered in Fazilka, officials said but they were yet to provide details about those booked till the filing of this report. Officials, wishing not to be named, said the malpractice has been going on for the past several years as a section of rice millers and arhtiyas, in collusion with officials, were manipulating the records to show paddy purchased from Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as having been cultivated in Punjab....