Odisha: EOW Arrests Fraudster Brothers for Misappropriating Govt Subsidy Worth Rs.6.81 Cr

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Crime Branch’s Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar has arrested two fraudsters for allegedly misappropriating government subsidy worth Rs.6.81 crore meant for the supply of agricultural equipment.
The accused have been identified as Manas Ranjan Dash and Tapas Kumar Dash. Both are the brothers and directors of M/s Sheetal Agro Inputs Pvt. Ltd. and Proprietor of M/s Mishita Enterprises, located at Purohitpur, Taradapada in Jagatsinghpur.

The fraudsters were apprehended on Wednesday under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120B of the IPC and Section 66 of the IT Act. They were forwarded to the Court of SDJM, Jagatsinghpur on Thursday.
During the investigation revealed, it has been revealed that M/s Sheetal Agro Inputs Pvt. Ltd. is registered with the Agriculture Department of Govt. of Odisha under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme as a manufacturing firm/ company of agro implements like transplanter machines etc.

During the financial year 2018-2019 & 2019-2020, Manas Ranjan Dash, in active connivance with its eight dealers including M/s Mishita Enterprises has uploaded a series of false/fake invoices/ data/ information in respect of supply/ sale of 504 Transplanters to an equal number of farmers/ beneficiaries belonging to 19 districts of Odisha including Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Balasore, Khordha, Kalahandi and Sambalpur and managed to avail subsidy amount of Rs.6,81,53,048/- under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme, which was disbursed in the bank accounts of concerned beneficiaries/farmers by the Agriculture Department and misappropriated the same.

It has also been ascertained that out of above-mentioned total 504 transplanter machines of M/s Sheetal Agro Inputs Pvt. Ltd, during the FY 2018-2020, 337 Transplanters are shown to have been sold by its dealer M/s Mishita Enterprises, the Proprietor of which is accused Tapas Kumar Dash, brother of Manash Ranjan Dash, and both the accused persons received the subsidy amount against those false sales by uploading fake invoices/data/information and UTR in the DBT Portal and misappropriated the subsidy amount. In the entire process actual machine/ transplanter was not manufactured or sold but a subsidy was availed by the beneficiaries.

Adding to it, soon after the subsidy amount was credited to the account of beneficiary/ farmer, accused Manas Ranjan Das and his brother Tapas Ranjan Dash and other dealers used to lure the beneficiary to withdraw the total subsidy amount. They took away major subsidy amount in cash from them by paying some amounts/ cuts to the concerned farmer/ beneficiary.

Many incriminating documents like the details of farmers/beneficiaries, fake invoices, Money Receipts and one Hard Disc containing the data uploaded in DBT Portal have been seized. Further investigation into the matter is underway.