The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch on Friday arrested a fraudster from Balasore district for allegedly siphoning off government subsidies amounting to Rs six crore in lieu of supplying agricultural equipment to 500 farmers in several parts of Odisha.

The accused identified as Srinath Rana was apprehended from his house in the Balasore Sadar police area and was later forwarded to Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate in Bhubaneswar under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.

Rana was arrested after EOW found prima facie in the complaint lodged by K.G. Sree Charan, Director of Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.

Rana had fraudulently used the company’s login ID to misappropriate a subsidy amount of Rs. 5 crores extended by the government to the beneficiary farmers.

The Bangalore-based company having its branch in Bhubaneswar was dealing with the business of supply of paddy transplanters to the farmers while delivering services and supplies to the State government under various agrarian subsidized schemes.

Incidentally, Rana was working as Regional Manager in the said company from 2018-2020 and was authorised to register the sale of machinery in the State government and facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the government of Odisha (Agriculture Department) website.

The accused had uploaded the forged documents about the supply of 500 rice transplant machines to farmers of as many as 18 districts through the State Direct Benefit Transfer portal and misappropriated Rs six crores in the process.

The accused in the capacity of Regional Manager of the farm had entered into a criminal conspiracy with others and had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engines & chassis numbers of machinery besides the names and photos of equal numbers of farmers/ beneficiaries covering 18 districts of Odisha.

The beneficiary farmers who did not procure the transplanting machine and were unaware of the commission of the fraud were paid a token amount of money against the subsidy that was drawn against their sums.

The cost of each paddy transplanting machine ranged from Rs. 2.33 lakhs to 3 lakhs with governmental subsidy input of Rs 93,320 to Rs 1.50 lakh against each of the machines. The farmers were entitled to the whole of the subsidy input. However the machines were procured and supplied to farmers on pen and paper only, said Deputy Inspector General of police, STF Crime Branch, Jai Narayan Pankaj.

It may be recalled here that EOW had arrested a man in the Bargarh district on 24 June for swindling Rs 3.49 crores farm subsidies through a fictitious supply of transplanting machines in western districts.