The incident, where a team of officers from the Agriculture Department were beaten up, took another turn on Wednesday when the spurious items sealed in the stores went missing.

The department officials alleged that the owner of Ajnala Kheti Store, Varinder Sareen, broke off a portion of the back wall and took away the sealed items.

Varinder Sareen alias Kale Shah and his two sons Rajan Sareen and Amit Sareen were booked under Sections 353, 186, 506 and 342 of IPC on September 7 for attacking public servants.

The officials, led by joint director Gurdev Singh Gill and chief agriculture officer P S Sandhu, had gone to check spurious seeds, pesticides and insecticides at agriculture stores following various complaints of the farmers.

When the team reached the store owned by Sareen, he turned violent and started abusing the officials.

Sareen, considered to be close to local Akali MLA Amarpal Singh Bony, attacked the officials and illegally detained them.

Bony was also accused of using foul language when he reached the spot, but no action was initiated against him by the police. Bony had, however, denied the allegations. “I was there to defuse the tension,” said Bony.

While investigations were being carried on into the case, items sealed in the presence of Ajnala SDM Ravinder Singh had gone missing. “We have made a fresh complaint to the police and have demanded a FIR of fraud,” said Sandhu.

Sandhu said they had sealed large quantity of spurious seeds, pesticides, insecticides and fertilisers. “We had taken the help of the police and were assured by the Ajnala DSP that the sealed items would remain under police protection,” he added. SSP Amritsar (Rural) S S Chauhan said they had already initiated action in the case and would also probe the new development.

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