Bhubaneswar: EOH Branch of State Crime Arrests a Ballasore-based businessman on Friday for allegedly embezzling government subsidies to reach almost RS 6 Crore under the pretext of selling agricultural machinery and equipment to farmers.
The defendant was identified as Srinath Rana (48).
Rana, who used to work as regional manager Varushapriya Agrotech Private Limited, a company based in Bangalore, has abused the company’s login ID and password to misuse the amount of subsidies.
The company, having a branch office in the Baramunda region here, has been in January this year filed a complaint with the Bharatpur police station.
EOW took an investigation from Bharatpur police on Wednesday.
Varuushapriya Agrotech is the official supplier of Transplanting Padi to farmers throughout the country and also provides various services to the Odisha government under various subsidized schemes.
During his tenure as a regional manager in the company in 2018-2020, the shutter was assigned the task of registering agricultural machinery sales and facilitated subsidies to beneficiaries / farmers by accessing the state website of the state agriculture www.agrisnetodisha.ori inside.
The cost of each rice transplant is used ranging from RS 2.33 lakh and RS 3 Lakh later.
The government offers subsidies between Rs 93,320 and Rs 1.50 lakh on each machine.
According to the procedure, farmers will buy an agricultural machine from the official dealer.
The dealer will then upload the sales details, along with photographs of beneficiaries, on the government website after which the government will transfer the amount of subsidy to farmer bank accounts.
“During the investigation, it was found that between 2017 and 2021, the Rana, the owner of the Auto Tarini M / S body in Balasore, has cheatedly uploading the details of fake sales of more than 500 rice transplants and chassis numbers.
He also uploaded the names and photos of the recipients False benefits from 18 districts on the transfer portal directly from the government, “said Director General of Police (Crime Branch) Sanjeeb Panda.
Furthermore, the government has released the amount of subsidies so far around Rs 6 Crore that supports farmers.
Subsidies are credited to bank bank accounts.
Shutter conspiraces with poor farmers and pays them several thousand rupees before attracting the amount of subsidies from their account.
“The shutter has attracted government subsidies without sales or purchasing agricultural equipment,” Panda said.
Even though farmers benefited illegally, The EOW did not catch them because they were captivated by the shutter, who paid them several thousand rupees.