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The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested a fraudster for allegedly misappropriating government subsidy for agricultural equipment to the tune of Rs 3.49 crore.
The accused has been identified as Kamaljeet Singh of Bargarh. He has been booked under Sections 419, 420, 406,467,468,471, 20-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 of the IT Act.
The accused was arrested based on a complaint filed by Rigin Bennet, Manager (Public Relations ) of M/s Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC, Thrissur (Kerala).
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The complainant had alleged that another accused Harpal Singh and others managed to obtain registration from Odisha Agriculture Department for selling farm equipment by preparing forged documents in the name of his company.
The accused fraudulently uploaded in the portal of Direct Benefit Transport (DBT) to have supplied 281 Rice Transplanter machines to farmers of Sambalpur, Sonepur, Bargarh Districts and misappropriated to Rs.3.5 Crores which is the subsidy amount by mentioning fake engine/chassis number of rice transplanter machines.
During 2018-20, accused Harpal Singh, who is the dealer of the company, along with his brother Kamaljeet Singh and others had uploaded fake engine/chassis number along with photographs of beneficiaries and machines in DBT portal of Government of Odisha.
The duo had showed to have sold rice transplanter machines of M/s Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC to 278 farmers of Bolangir, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Subarnapur Districts without procuring the same from the company. It has been found during investigation that the machines were never sold, but only shown in papers to have been sold. Harpal Singh had uploaded his photographs along with the beneficiaries and fake machines in DBT portals with a view to deceit the government.
The photographs were taken by Kamaljeet Singh, EOW release stated.
After the photographs were uploaded, subsidy amount ranging from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1.5 lakh were credited to the account of 278 beneficiary farmers. The total subsidy amount comes to Rs.3.49 Crores.
“Soon after the subsidy amount were credited to the account of beneficiary farmers, Kamaljeet Singh and his brother Harpal Singh used to lure the beneficiary to withdraw the total subsidy amount. They took away total subsidy amount in cash from them and in lieu of that Rs.3,000 to 5,000 were paid to the farmers by the two accused persons and others, taking advantage of their illiteracy and innocence. An amount of Rs.1.92 Crores has already been frozen in different accounts of accused persons and their firms,” the release added.
