The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police has arrested two fraudsters, including a Chartered Accountant (CA), in connection with a fraud committed by them in the name of the SAMRIDH scheme of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) involving a sum of Rs 3 crore, police said on Tuesday.

The action was taken following a complaint from Rashi Sharma, the Authorised Representative of MeitY Startup Hub (MSH), who stated that under the SAMRIDH scheme, HPPL Foundation, a not-for-profit society, represented by its Director Prashant Agarwal, was selected as one of the accelerators.

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The complainant added that despite receiving Rs 3.04 crore, the HPPL Foundation failed to disburse funds to the intended startups, and Prashant Agarwal instead misled MSH by submitting fake and fabricated Utilisation Certificates, falsely certified under the name and seal of Chartered Accountant Sudhanshu Kumar, in order to conceal the misappropriation of funds.

Based on this, a case under the relevant sections of the IPC was registered at the EOW police station and investigation taken up, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Amit Verma.

The DCP revealed that during the investigation, it was found that Agarwal had assured MSH that the sanctioned amount of Rs 3.04 crore would be deposited into the HPPL Foundation’s account and subsequently disbursed to the eight selected startups in accordance with the guidelines of the SAMRIDH scheme. However, instead of fulfilling this commitment, he misappropriated the funds for personal use.

Further investigation established that Agarwal had also collected approximately Rs 11 lakh from various startups under the false pretence of facilitating the release of government funds, which were never actually disbursed.

To cover up the fraud and mislead both MSH and the startups, he submitted fake and forged Utilisation Certificates, allegedly certified by Chartered Accountant Sudhanshu Kumar, Verma added.

The DCP further mentioned that after collecting concrete evidence, Agarwal was apprehended from Bengaluru, Karnataka, while Kumar was apprehended from Patna, Bihar.

The police also recovered digital evidence containing critical data related to forged documents, email communications, transfer of proceeds of crime, etc., from the premises of the duo.