Bhubaneshwar: 3 arrested in cheating case worth Rs 12 crores

Three persons were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing on Sunday in connection with an alleged cheating case worth Rs 12 crores.

According to the Economic Offences Wing, the matter pertains to grabbing a subsidy amount using fake documents.

The three arrested accused were identified as the MD of Ms of Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd Pradeep Kumar Acharya, proprietor of M/s Dash Traders & Agro Agency Prabha Ranjan Dash and Shaik Fayaz and proprietor of M/s Shaik Fayaz.

The three were arrested from Bhubaneshwar, Daspalla and Berhampur in connection with EOW Police Station Case No. 20/2022 under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.

The three accused were produced before the SDJM, Bhubaneswar on December 17.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint/ enquiry report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) AK Mishra of EOW, Bhubaneswar.

DSP Mishra, during the course of his investigation in a similar case, vide EOW PS Case No. 07 of 2021, came to know about the commission of a similar fraud by the accused persons. They allegedly misappropriated government subsidies meant for the farmers and other beneficiaries, amounting to at least Rs 12 crores, by manufacturing and using forged documents, email ID, UTR etc.

As per the investigation, accused Pradeep Kumar Acharya is the MD of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd., Balasore.

The firm is registered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme, both as a manufacturer and dealer of Agro implements like post-harvest machines, power-driven equipment and rotavator etc. The company has appointed 115 no. of dealers throughout Odisha.

"Accused Pradeep Kumar Acharya, MD of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. in active connivance with the dealers including the present accused persons namely, Prabha Ranjan Dash, and Shaik Fayaz, during the FY 2016-17 to 2019-20, has uploaded a series of false/fake invoices/data/information/UTR in respect of supply/ sale of approx. 381 Agro equipment to an equal number of farmers/ beneficiaries and managed to avail subsidy amount to the tune of Crores under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme and misappropriated the subsidy amount," the EOW said in a statement.

"Pursuant to their conspiracy, the accused manufacturer-cum-dealer M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. and its two above-mentioned dealers in order to perpetrate the fraud have uploaded fake invoices, photos of the implements with beneficiaries, UTR nos. etc. in the DBT portal, which were meant for Govt. subsidy for farm implements," it said further.

"Thereby, they grabbed the subsidy amount meant for the beneficiaries/farmers. The accused persons fraudulently have shown to have sold/supplied more agro equipment than they have actually supplied. In many cases, even no equipment has at all been supplied but by using the fake/false UTRs they have managed to avail the subsidy amount on that," it added.

"It has also been ascertained that before the subsidy amount was credited to the account of the beneficiary/ farmer, the accused persons, in some cases, collected the advance cheque from the beneficiaries under allurement in order to withdraw the total subsidy amount. They used to take away major subsidy amounts from the beneficiaries by this devious means by paying some meagre amount to such farmers/beneficiaries," in further informed through its statement.

Finding the irregularities, the Department of Agriculture has blocked the manufacturing accused company M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. in its DBT portal, it said.

Many incriminating documents were also seized during investigation, the police informed.

Further investigation is underway.

( With inputs from ANI )