In a significant breakthrough, the Crime Branch’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday arrested a fraudster for allegedly misappropriating Government subsidy worth Rs 3.49 crore meant for agricultural equipment.
The accused was identified as Kamaljeet Singh of Bargarh district. He has been booked under Sections 419, 420, 406,467,468,471, 20-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 of the IT Act.
The accused was held based on a complaint lodged by Rigin Bennet, Manager (Public Relations) of Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC in Thrissur of Kerala.The complainant had alleged that another accused Harpal Singh and others managed to obtain registration from Odisha Agriculture Department for selling farm equipment by preparing forged documents in the name of his company.
The accused fraudulently uploaded in the portal of Direct Benefit Transport (DBT) to have supplied 281 Rice Transplanter machines to farmers of Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Bargarh districts and misappropriated Rs.3.5 crore which is the subsidy amount by mentioning fake engine and chassis number of rice transplanter machines.
During 2018-20, accused Harpal Singh, who is the dealer of the company, along with his brother Kamaljeet Singh and others had uploaded fake engine and chassis numbers along with photographs of beneficiaries and machines in DBT portal of Odisha Government.
The duo had been shown to have sold rice transplanter machines of Redlands Ashlyn Motors PLC to 278 farmers of Balangir, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Subarnapur districts without procuring the same from the company. It has been found during investigation that the machines were never sold, but only shown in papers to have been sold. Harpal Singh had uploaded his photographs along with the beneficiaries and fake machines in DBT portals with a view to defraud 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. The total subsidy amount comes to Rs.3.49 crore.
“Soon after the subsidy amount was credited to the account of beneficiary farmers, Kamaljeet and his brother Harpal used to lure the beneficiary to withdraw the total subsidy amount.