Kathmandu, Jan 28: Police have arrested Rakesh Agrawal, the proprietor of Annapurna Sugar Mill and Indira Sugar Mill for not paying the dues owed by the sugar mills to the sugarcane farmers.  

The police here had held Agrawal from his residence at Tripureshwor on Wednesday evening, on the basis of the letter from the District Police Office Sarlahi. Nepal Police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said industrialist Agrawal has been sent to Sarlahi this morning for action.    

According to Kunwar, he was sent to Sarlahi to face legal action as a complaint was lodged against him at the District Police Office Sarlahi on the charge of fraud. He said sugarcane farmers of Sarlahi have claimed dues to the tune of Rs 170 million, in the petition they have lodged against him.    

It is said the two sugar mills are yet to pay more than Rs 80 million in dues to the farmers.    
As per the data with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the two sugar mills have dues Rs 217 million to farmers, including dues of Rs 170 million owed by Annapurna Sugar Mill based in Sarlahi and of Rs 47 million owed by Indira Sugar Mill based in Nawalparasi.  

Indira Sugar Mill has send Rs 8.3 million in the bank account of the farmers as of Tuesday. It has Rs 15 million in its bank account out of dues of Rs 47 million.

Likewise, Annapurna Sugar Mill has paid dues worth Rs 126 million 372 thousand to the farmers. It is yet to pay dues of Rs 170 million to the farmers.    

It may be recalled here that the Ministry had on December 15, 2020 directed the Chief District Officers of the districts where these sugar mills are located to take legal action against the sugar mill proprietors for not paying the farmers their dues.  

The sugarcane farmers had waged a protest movement in Kathmandu calling for the payment of dues of millions of rupees the sugar mills owed them.