TV
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar has arrested one more person for misappropriating government subsidy to the tune of Rs 7.16 crore meant for agricultural equipment. The accused, Bidyadhara Behera was arrested from Bhadrak yesterday.
Earlier, four persons including the main accused Srinath Rana were arrested in connection with the case.
The case was earlier registered on the basis of a complaint filed by K.G. Sree Charan, Director of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore. Rana was earlier working as Regional Manager with the said company and by fraudulently using the company’s login ID, he misappropriated subsidy amount of Rs.5 crore extended by the Government. Rana was authorized to register the sale of machinery in the State of Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the Odisha Government’s (Agriculture Dept.) website by using the login id and password meant exclusively for M/s Varusapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. company.
From 2017-21, accused Srinath Rana (Proprietor of M/s Tarini Auto Agency, Balasore) was also the authorized dealer of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd and without the knowledge of the complainant firm, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the present accused Bidyadhara Behera, proprietor of Kalpana Motors, Charampa, Bhadrak, and others.
They had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 556 paddy trans-planters with fake engine and chassis numbers (shown supplied/sold by their agencies) and names and photos of an equal number of farmers/beneficiaries across 18 districts of Odisha. In the process, they highlighted the issue/supply of those trans-planters to the farmers and managed to release subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs.7.16 crore in favour of the farmers/beneficiaries from the Government.
“Soon after the release/credit of subsidy amounts in accounts of beneficiary farmers, the accused persons hatched a criminal conspiracy with others and lured beneficiaries by giving them some token amount and took the subsidy amount. It is learned that the cost of the trans-planter ranges from Rs.2.33 Lakh to Rs3 Lakh. Against each machinery, the state government was releasing subsidy amount ranging from Rs.93,320 to Rs.1.50 Lakh,” the EOW said in a release.
