The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Friday arrested a man who allegedly misappropriated Rs 6 crore subsidy released by Odisha government towards procurement of agricultural equipment.
The accused, Srinath Rana was arrested from Balasore in connection with the case which was initially registered with the Bharatpur Police Station on a complaint filed by K.G. Sree Charan, Director of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore.
The complainant had alleged that Rana, who earlier worked as the Regional Manager of the company during the years 2018-2020, misappropriated the subsidy money extended by the government by fraudulently using the Company’s login ID. Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt Ltd which also has its branch office at Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, deals in the supply of paddy transplanters to farmers across the country and also delivers services and supplies to Odisha government under various subsidized schemes to promote agriculture.
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The accused Srinath Rana was authorised to register the sale of machineries in the state of Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the Government of Odisha (Agriculture Dept.) website www.agrisnetodisha.ori.nic.in by using the login ID and password meant exclusively for the company.
From 2017 to 2021, Srinath Rana as the proprietor of M/s Tarini Auto Agency (Balasore) and authorized dealer of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd and in the capacity of Regional Manager of the complainant firm had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engine and chassis numbers of machineries, names and photos of equal numbers of farmers/ beneficiaries covering 18 districts of Odisha, EOW said in a release.
The accused purportedly showed to have issued or supplied transplanters to the farmers in DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) Portal of Agriculture department of the State government and managed to get subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs. 6 crore released.
“Soon after the release / credit of subsidy amounts in accounts of beneficiary farmers, the accused in criminal conspiracy with others, used to lure the beneficiary by giving them some token amount and was grabbing the remaining subsidy amount. The cost of each paddy transplanter was ranged between Rs. 2.33 lakh to 3 lakh approximately and against each machinery, the government released subsidy amount ranging from Rs. 93,320 to Rs. 1.50 lakhs,” the release said.
“The accused had cheated the complainant company as well as the Odisha government and misappropriated the subsidy amount. In this fraudulent process, no machine/ paddy-transplanter was actually purchased but the entire subsidy amount was siphoned off,” the released added.