Odisha Police arrests one other accused in Government subsidy fraud case

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested one other fraudster for his involvement in misappropriating authorities subsidies of Rs 7.16 crore meant for provide of agricultural tools to farmers, an EOW official stated Friday.

The accused Bidyadhara Behera, proprietor of Kalpana Motors, was arrested from Bhadrak.

During investigation, the EOW discovered that Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., a Bengaluru-based firm having its department workplace right here at Baramunda, was coping with the enterprise of supplying paddy transplanters to the farmers throughout the nation and likewise delivering companies and provides to the Odisha authorities underneath numerous backed schemes.
Srinath Rana, prime accused within the case, was earlier working as regional supervisor within the stated firm was authorised to register the sale of equipment in Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the state Agriculture division web site.

During the interval from 2017-21, accused Srinath Rana having a prison conspiracy together with the current accused Bidyadhara Behera and others had fraudulently uploaded the small print of greater than 556 paddy transplanters and equal variety of beneficiaries overlaying 18 districts of Odisha.

The accused did it with out the data of the complainant farm, the officers stated. By submitting faux paperwork, the accused managed to get launch of subsidy quantity to the tune of about Rs 7.16 crore in favour of the beneficiaries.

Soon after the credit score of subsidy quantities in accounts of beneficiary farmers, the accused individuals in a prison conspiracy with others, used to lure the beneficiaries by giving them some token quantity and had been grabbing the subsidy quantity, they stated.

The price of the trans-planter ranges from Rs 2.33 lakh to Rs 3 lakh and the federal government launched subsidy quantities starting from Rs 93,320 to Rs 1.50 lakh.

Out of 556 paddy transplanters, 46 are proven to have been equipped by Bidyadhara Behera, proprietor of Kalpana Motors, who was additionally the authorised vendor of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. So far, 5 accused individuals, together with predominant accused Srinath Rana, have been arrested on this case and forwarded to court docket.