KOCHI: Documents which show the distribution of dates in institutions which comes under the social justice department were undertaken under Sivasankar’s direction, are finally out. About 9973.50 kg of dates has been distributed in various institutions across the state. Social justice department says that it has been distributed among 39,894 persons with 250 grams each. Social justice department has revealed this information in response to an RTI plea.

The highest quantity of dates was distributed in the district of Thrissur—1257.25 kg. Lowest is in Alappuzha, where only a meagre 234 kg were distributed. The RTI documents come at a time when the probe agencies are interrogating officials in the social justice department to know about the exact reason for which the IT secretary asked the department to undertake dates distribution.

Customs has already found procedural lapses in the move to distribute 17,000 kg of dates which were imported from UAE, with tax exemption to distribute in the state. Apart from the distribution of dates in the institutions coming under the social welfare department, probe agencies have also found that dates were distributed among the friends and acquaintances of Swapna Suresh. Within three years, dates worth 17,000 kg were distributed in the state. Customs suspect foul play in importing such a large quantity of dates for non-commercial purpose.