Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested Pradeep Kumar Acharya, MD of M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd., Prabha Ranjan Dash, proprietor M/s Dash Traders & Agro Agency and Shaik Fayaz, proprietor of M/s Shaik Fayaz from Bhubaneswar, Daspalla and Berhampur respectively on Friday.
They have been arrested in connection with a case of agro-equipment subsidy fraud case which was registered by the EOW in November this year. The trio has been booked under Sections 420/467/468/471/120-B of the IPC and Sections 66 of the IT Act, 2000.
The case been registered on the basis of a complaint/ enquiry report submitted by Dy SP of EOW, AK Mishra who in course of his investigation into a similar case came to know about this fraud. The trio allegedly misappropriated Government subsidy to the tune of Rs 12 crore meant for the farmers/beneficiaries by forging documents.
“The accused fraudulently showed to have sold/supplied more number of agro equipment than they have actually supplied. In many cases, even no equipment has at all been supplied but by using the fake/false UTRs they have managed to avail the subsidy amount,” an EOW official said.
They used to take away major subsidy amount from the beneficiaries by this devious means by paying some meagre amount to such farmers/beneficiaries. Finding the irregularities, the Department of Agriculture has blocked the manufacturing accused company M/s Annapurna Agro International Pvt. Ltd. in its DBT portal.
“During investigation, many incriminating documents have been seized. The investigation of this case is continuing,” the official added.
