EOW ARRESTS ANOTHER DEALER OF ANNAPURNA AGRO INTERNATIONAL PVT. LTD.IN AGRO- EQUIPMENT SUBSIDY FRAUD OF Rs.12 Cr.
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar,25/04/23:Economic Offences Wing arrested accused Chautura Deep, Proprietor of M/s KBK Deep Agro Sales, Dunguripalli, yesterday i.e. on 24.04.2023 from Dunguripalli, Sonepur in connection with EOW PS Case No.20 dt.07.11.2022 U/s 420/467/468/471/120-B IPC and Sec.66 of IT Act, 2000, and the arrested accused will be produced before SDJM, Bhubaneswar, today.
The above noted case has been registered on the basis of a written report submitted by Dy.S.P, A.K. Mishra of EOW, Bhubaneswar, who in course of his investigation into EOW PS Case No.07 of 2021 came to know about the commission of another similar fraud by MD of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. in conspiracy with its dealers in misappropriating the Govt. subsidy meant for the farmers/beneficiaries on purchase of agro equipment amounting to Rs.12 Crores approx. by manufacturing and using forged documents/email ID, UTR etc.
The arrested accused Chautura Deep is the proprietor of M/s KBK Deep Agro Sales,registered dealer of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd., Balasore, which is a manufacturing unit of agro equipment. The firm is registered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme, both as manufacturer and dealer of Agro implements like post harvest machines, power driven equipment and rotavator etc.
The company has appointed 115 no. of dealers throughout Odisha, and in active connivance with the dealers including the present accused Chautura Deep, proprietor of M/s KBK Deep Agro Sales, during the FY 2016-17 to 2019-20, has uploaded a series of false/fake invoices/data/information/UTR pertaining to supply/sale of approx. 1766 agro equipment to equal number of farmers/ beneficiaries and managed to avail subsidy amount to the tune of Crores under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme and the amount was misappropriated by the manufacturing farm and its dealers.
Pursuant to their conspiracy, the accused manufacturer-cum-dealer M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. and dealer Chautura Deep, prop:M/s KBK Deep Agro Sales in order to perpetrate the fraud have uploaded fake invoices, photo of the implements with beneficiaries, UTR Nos. etc. in the DBT portal meant for Govt. subsidy for farm implements, and thereby grabbed the
subsidy amount meant for the beneficiaries/farmers.
The present accused has fraudulently shown to have sold/supplied 487 Nos. of agro equipment involving the subsidy amount Rs.3.54 Crores approx. which has been misappropriated by the MD of the manufacturing firm and the arrested accused dealer.
For the purpose, the accused has uploaded fake/false UTRs in the DBT portal to get the subsidy amount released.
It has been ascertained that before the subsidy amount was being credited to the account of beneficiary/ farmer, the accused persons, in some cases, have collected the advance cheque from the beneficiaries under allurement in order to withdraw the total subsidy amount. They used to take away major subsidy amount from the beneficiaries fraudulently by paying some meagre amount to
such farmers/beneficiaries.
Finding the irregularities, the Dept. of Agriculture has blocked the manufacturing accused company M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. in its DBT portal.
Earlier in this case, Pradeep Kumar Acharya, MD of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. and his two dealers namely Prabha Ranjan Dash and Shaik Fayaz were arrested and forwarded in this case.The investigation of the case is on.
