Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhubaneswar has arrested a person belonging to Balasore district on the charge of misappropriating the state government’s subsidy to the farmers amounting to Rs 6 crore.
The EOW made the arrest following investigation into an FIR filed by KG Sree Charan, director of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore at Bharatpur police station, here. Charan alleged in the FIR that Srinath Rana of Balasore town had fraudulently used the company’s login ID and misappropriated the subsidy amount.
It was ascertained during investigation that Varushapriya Agrotech, having branch office at Baramunda in Bhubaneswar, deals with supply of paddy transplanters to the farmers across the country and also delivers services and supplies to Odisha government under various subsidised schemes under agriculture sector.
Rana, who was working as regional manager in the company from 2018 to 2020, was authorised to register the sale of machineries in Odisha and facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries by accessing the Agriculture department website by using the login ID and password of the company.
Rana is also the proprietor of Tarini Auto Agency in Balasore and authorised dealer of Varushapriya Agrotech.
The EOW established during the investigation that Rana, in his capacity as the regional manager and in criminal conspiracy with others, had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engine and chassis numbers and names and photos of equal number of farmers of 18 districts of Odisha.
Showing that the transplanters had been sold to the farmers in the government website, Rana had managed to get the subsidy amount of about Rs 6 crore paid to the beneficiaries. After the subsidy amounts were credited in the accounts of the beneficiaries, Rana lured them by giving some token money and grabbed the rest amount.
In this fraudulent process, no paddy transplanter was actually sold but the entire subsidy amount was siphoned off by Rana, the EOW stated in a release. Following his arrest from his house in Balasore, Rana was forwarded to the SDJM court in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
