Eight members of a CPI(M)-run local agriculture cooperative committee, including its chairman and secretary, were arrested on charge of syphoning off kerosene from fair price shops at Jamalpur in Burdwan district.
Police said the arrests were made last night after recovery of two barrels of kerosene from the cycle repair shop of Shyamal Das, driver of the ambulance owned by CPIM-controlled Jamalpur Itla Agriculture Cooperative Society.
Earlier, a crowd locked the office of the society, which had been supplying PDS items through the fair-price shops in the area, alleging the poor were not getting the ration and which was finding its way to the open market. A police complaint was also lodged by a villager later.
Besides driver Das, who happened to be a samity member, Secretary Asit Halder and Chairman Debaprasad Sarkar were among the eight arrested.
The eight were produced in the court of a chief judicial magistrate today and remanded in custody till July 8