EOW ARRESTED ONE FRAUDSTER FOR MISAPPROPRIATING GOVT. SUBSIDY AMOUNT OF Rs.6 Crs. IN AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT

Bureau,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar: Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused Srinath Rana, on 02.09.2021 from his residence under Sadar PS (Balasore) in EOW PS Case No. 11 dt. 01.09.2021 U/s 409/420/468/471/120-B IPC r.w. Sec. 66, 66 (C) & 66 (D) of IT Act, 2000. He is being forwarded to the court of SDJM, Bhubaneswar today.

EOW, Bhubaneswar initiated investigation of this case by taking over case no. 24 of 2021 dated 20.01.2021 registered with Bharatpur PS (under UPD, Bhubaneswar) on the basis of a complaint filed by K.G. Sree Charan, Director of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. It has been alleged in the FIR that accused Srinath Rana by fraudulently using the Company’s login ID has misappropriated subsidy amount of Rs. 5 Crores extended by the Govt. and thereby cheated the Govt. as well as the petitioner.

It has been ascertained during investigation that M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. is a Bangalore based company having its branch office at Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, dealing with the business of supply of paddy transplanters to the farmers across the country and also delivering services and supplies to Odisha Govt. under various subsidized schemes in order to promote agriculture. Accused Srinath Rana was working as Regional Manager in the said company during the year 2018 to 2020 and was authorised to register the sale of machineries in the state of Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the Govt. of Odisha (Agriculture Dept.) website www.agrisnetodisha.ori.nic.in by using the login id and password meant exclusively for M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. company. It has been ascertained during investigation that during the period from 2017 to 2021, accused Srinath Rana, Proprietor of M/s Tarini Auto Agency, Balasore, who also happens to be the authorized dealer of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. and in the capacity of Regional Manager of the complainant farm, without the knowledge of the said complainant farm, in criminal conspiracy with others had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engine & chassis numbers of machineries and names & photos of equal numbers of farmers/ beneficiaries covering 18 districts of Odisha, purportedly showing issue/ supply of those translators to the said farmers, in the above mentioned DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) Portal of Agriculture Dept. of Govt. of Odisha and against that managed to get release of subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs. 6 crores in favour of the farmers/ beneficiaries by the Govt. 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 subsidy amount. It has been leant that the cost of each paddy transplanter was ranging from Rs. 2.33 lakhs to 3 lakhs approximately and against each machinery, Govt. was releasing subsidy amount ranging from Rs. 93,320/- to Rs. 1.50 lakhs. Thus, the accused Srinath Rana in criminal conspiracy with others by adopting the above modus operandi had cheated the complainant company as well as Govt. of Odisha and misappropriated the subsidy amount. In this fraudulent process, no machine/ paddy-transplanted was actually purchased but the entire subsidy amount was siphoned off. Investigation of the case is continuing.