Fraudster arrested by EOW for Misappropriating Govt Fund of Six Corers
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar:The Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused Lenin Choudhury, a resident of Pakelpada under Mahulpali PS (in Sambalpur district) on 16.09.2021 night from Gobindpur 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 on Friday.
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 one Srinath Rana, who was earlier working as Regional Manager in the said company 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 & supplies to Odisha Govt. under various subsidized schemes in order to promote agriculture. Accused Srinath Rana, who was earlier working as Regional Manager in the said company 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 also been learnt 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 the present accused Lenin Choudhury, proprietor of M/s Khushi Agrotech, Gobindpur, Sambalpur and others had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engine & chassis numbers of machineries (shown supplied/ sold by their agencies) and names & photos of equal numbers of farmers/ beneficiaries covering 18 districts of Odisha, purportedly showing issue/ supply of those transplanters 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.
It has been ascertained that out of the above mentioned 500 paddy transplanters, 131 transplanters shown to have sold/ supplied by M/s Khushi Agrotech, Gobindpur, Sambalpur, the proprietor of which is the present accused, Lenin Choudhury. It has also been learnt that M/s Khushi Agrotech was also an authorized dealer of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. and accused Lenin Choudhury with active knowledge in criminal conspiracy with main accused Srinath Rana had provided fake engine and chassis numbers of 131 transplanters shown issued in favour of 131 beneficiaries/ farmers of Sambalpur and Jharsuguda District. Against supply of those specific 131 transplanters, subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs. 1.32 crores was released in favour of the farmers/ beneficiaries by the Govt., which amount is included in the total fraud amount of Rs. 6 crores.
Thus, the accused Srinath Rana in criminal conspiracy with present accused Lenin Choudhury & 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-transplanter was actually purchased but the entire subsidy amount was siphoned off.
Earlier, accused Srinath Rana has been arrested in this case and forwarded to court. He is still in judicial custody. Investigation of the case is continuing.
