Bhubaneswar, The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a Fraudster on the charge of misappropriating Odisha government subsidies amounting to Rs 3.49 crore of 278 farmers of Western Odisha.
EOW sources said the accused Kamaljeet Singh of Bargarh was arrested yesterday under various sections of IPC, Sec 66 of IT Act and forwarded to the Court of SDJM, Bargarh. The court remanded him to judicial custody.
A case was registered on the complaint of one Rigin Bennet, Manager, Public Relations of M/s Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC, Thrissur, Kerala in April last on the allegation that accused Harpal Singh & others had used forged documents in the name of his company and managed to obtain registration from Odisha Agriculture Department for selling farm equipment.
They fraudulently uploaded in the portal of Direct Benefit Transport (DBT) to have supplied 281 Rice Transplanter machines to farmers of Sambalpur, Sonepur, Bargarh districts and misappropriated to Rs 3.5 crores, the subsidy amount of Odisha government producing fake engine/chassis number.
Investigation revealed that, during 2018-20, accused Harpal Singh, who is the dealer of the company in criminal conspiracy with his brother Kamaljeet Singh and others had uploaded fake engine/chassis number along with photographs of beneficiaries & machines in DBT portal of Odisha government stating that rice transplanter machines of M/s Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC make were sold to 278 farmers of Bolangir, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Subarnapur Districts without procuring the same from the company.
It is ascertained during the investigation that, machines were never sold but only shown in the papers
Harpal Singh had uploaded his joint photographs with beneficiaries and fake machines in DBT portals to deceit the government.
The photographs were taken by Kamaljeet Singh. After the photographs were uploaded, subsidy amounts ranging from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1.5 lakh were credited to the account of 278 beneficiary farmers which comes to Rs.3.49 crores.
Soon after the subsidy amount was credited to the account of beneficiary farmers, Kamaljeet Singh and his brother Harpal Singh lured the beneficiary to withdraw the total subsidy amount.
They took away the total subsidy amount in cash from them while paying Rs.3,000 to 5,000 to the farmers taking advantage of their innocence.
So far an amount of Rs.1.92 crores has already been frozen in different accounts of the accused persons and their firms, the EOW sources said.
(Agencies)
