The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch arrested two brothers for misappropriating a government subsidy worth Rs. 6.81 crore was designed to give agricultural equipment to farmers in the state.
Manas Ranjan Dash, the director of Sheetal Agro Inputs Private Limited, and Tapas Kumar Dash, the proprietor of Mishita Enterprises, misappropriated government subsidies intended for farmers/beneficiaries by manufacturing and utilizing forged papers and email IDs.
Sheetal Agro maintains an office in Purohitpur, Jagatsinghpur district, and is registered with the Odisha Department of Agriculture under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system as a manufacturer of equipment such as transplanter machines, according to an EOW investigation.
During the fiscal years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, director Manas of Sheetal Agro, in collaboration with eight dealers, including Mishita, posted several false documents and info about the purported supply/sale of 504 transplanters to farmers in 19 districts such as Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Balasore, Khurda, Kalahandi, and Sambalpur.
EOW officials discovered that, of the total transplanter machines stated to have been provided by Sheetal Agro, 337 were sold by its reseller Mishita between 2018 and 2020.
Manas and Tapas, the accused brothers, got the subsidy amount by submitting fake invoices, details, and a unique transaction reference to the DBT site. Sheetal Agro claims that its dealers did not make or distribute transplanter equipment. After the subsidy was credited to the beneficiaries'/farmers' accounts, Manas, Tapas, and other dealers used to persuade them to withdraw the entire amount. They took the majority of the cash subsidies from the beneficiaries in exchange for a little.
Officers from the agency recovered several incriminating papers, including farmer/beneficiary information, fake invoices, money receipts, and a hard disc holding data posted to the DBT site. EOW officials discovered the scam while examining a similar case that had been filed the previous year.
"On April 2, a case was filed in this regard, and the accused brothers were detained on Wednesday." "On Thursday, they were presented in court in Jagatsinghpur," said EOW DIG Jai Narayan Pankaj.
