Shillong, June 7: The Independent inquiry constituted to probe into the seizure of one lakh bags of rice by the Assam police, has termed the allegations of rice scam as ‘baseless’.

Informing this on Wednesday, Minister in-charge Social Welfare Paul Lyngdoh said that the inquiry report is ready.

“As per this report all allegations of rice scam are baseless and there is no iota of truth in any of the allegations,” he said while adding “That is also the view that has also been put up before the Advocate General (AG) of the state and the AG was very clear, was very lucid, was very pointed in his observation that the allegations have no legs to stand upon and therefore, the case cannot be regarded as a scam.”

“Having obtained the views of the law department and the AG and having observed the view that the actual incident and the case were delayed because of lack of coordination with the Assam police where the scam was supposed to have taken place, I had observed accordingly that in future there should be a definite timeline for inquiries so that parties who are alleged to have committed such scams and the department are not drag into needless controversies,” the minister further added.

When asked how did the bags of rice end up in an Assam’s go down, Lyngdoh said, “From the file noting, it was just a matter of the location which was not properly recorded and therefore, the case was handed over to the Assam police and on further inquiry and based on the inquiry report, the file then went through the law department and the advocate general and they were very clear that no such scams had taken place.”