Chhattisgarh liquor scam: ACB, EOW conduct raids
The recent filing of a First Information Report (FIR) by the ACB has intensified scrutiny into the matter, indicating the gravity of the situation.
The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police have arrested two fraudsters, both siblings, on charge of misappropriating government subsidies to the tune of Rs 6.81 crore meant for supply of agricultural equipment to farmers.
The accused, identified as Manas Ranjan Dash and Tapas Kumar Dash, the director and proprietor of two firms located in Jagatsinghpur district, were nabbed by sleuths of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday, a senior official said.
Investigation into the case revealed that the firms are registered with the state’s agriculture department under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme “as a manufacturing firm/company of agro implements like transplanter machines”.
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“They (the duo) managed to avail subsidy amount of Rs 6,81,53,048 under the DBT scheme, which was disbursed in the bank accounts of concerned beneficiaries/farmers by the agriculture department and misappropriated the same,” he said.
Several documents like details of beneficiaries, fake invoices, money receipts and a hard disc containing data uploaded on the DBT Portal have been seized, the EOW official said.
The accused persons committed fraud in the name of beneficiaries from 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.
Immediately after the subsidy amount was credited to the account of beneficiary farmers, the accused duo used to lure the beneficiary to withdraw the total subsidy amount. They embezzled the major subsidy amount in cash from them by paying a negligible amount to the concerned farmer beneficiary, EOW said in a statement.
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