Odisha EOW Arrests One More Fraudster in Agri-Equipment Subsidy Fraud Case

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has arrested one more fraudster for his involvement in misappropriating government subsidies of Rs 5 crore meant for supply of agricultural equipment to farmers.

The accused has been identified as Prahallad Meshua. He has been arrested from Bheden in Bargarh.

He will be produced before the court today. Earlier, five accused persons, including the main accused Srinath Rana were arrested in this case by EOW.

A case in this regard was filed by KG Sree Charan, Director of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.

It has been ascertained during the investigation that M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., a Bangalore-based company and having its branch office at Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, was dealing in the business of supplying paddy trans-planters to the farmers across the country and also delivering services and supplies to Government of Odisha under various subsidy schemes.
Accused Srinath Rana, who was earlier working as regional manager in the said company was authorised to register the sale of machinery in Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries/farmers by accessing the Odisha Agriculture Department website www.agrisnetodisha.ori.nic.in by using the login id and password meant exclusively for the company.

It is learned that during the period from 2017-21, accused Srinath Rana without the knowledge of the firm, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the arrested accused Prahallad Meshua, proprietor of Subhalaxmi Traders, Bargarh, and other fraudsters and fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 556 paddy trans-planters with fake engine and chassis number of machinery (shown supplied/sold by their agencies) and names and photos of farmers/beneficiaries purportedly showing issue/supply of those trans-planters to the said farmers, in the Direct Benefit Transfer portal of Agriculture Department and managed to get the release of subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs 716 crore in favour of the farmers/beneficiaries by the Government Soon after the release/credit of subsidy amounts in the accounts of beneficiary farmers, the accused persons used to lure the beneficiaries by giving them some token amount and grabbing the major subsidy amount. It has been learned that the cost of the trans-planter ranges from Rs 2.33 to Rs 3 Lakh and against each machinery whereas the government was releasing subsidy amounts ranging from Rs 93,320 to Rs 1.50 lakh.

It has been ascertained that out of the 556 paddy trans-planters, 54 transplanters were shown to have been sold/supplied by Prahallad Meshua, proprietor of Subhalaxmi Traders, who was the authorized dealer of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. and he in criminal conspiracy with main accused Srinath Rana had provided fake engine and chassis number of 54 trans-planters shown issued in favour of the equal number of beneficiaries/farmers of Bargarh and Sonepur districts.
Further investigation into the case is underway, the EOW said.