Odisha Police nabs fraudster brothers for misappropriating agri subsidies

The Odisha Police has arrested two brothers on charge of misappropriating government subsidy 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”.

“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.