Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing has arrested one Bijaya Kumar Nayak on charges of misappropriating Government subsidy towards farm equipment meant for disbursement to eligible beneficiaries (farmers). Nayak is the proprietor Modern Agro Tech of Balasore. He has been booked under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 66 of the IT Act, and was forwarded to the Court of SDJM, Jagatsinghpur on Thursday.
The case was registered against Nayak on the complaint of Deputy SP AK Mishra of the EOW, who in course of his investigation in a similar case came to know about the embezzlement of Government funds amounting to Rs 6.81 crore by manufacturing and using forged documents/email id, and UTR etc.
Sheetal Agro Inputs has an office at Purohitpur in Jagatsinghpur. The firm is registered with the Agriculture Department under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme as a manufacturing firm/company of Agro implements like Transplanter machines etc.
During the financial year 2018-2019 & 2019-2020, Manas Ranjan Dash, Director of M/s Sheetal Agro Inputs Pvt. Ltd., in active connivance with its eight dealers including Nayak, uploaded a series of false/fake invoices/ data/ information for supply/ sale of 504 Transplanters to as many farmers in 19 districts.
The company availed a subsidy of Rs 6,81,53,048 under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme, which was disbursed in the bank accounts of beneficiaries by the Agriculture Department. During the investigation, incriminating fake documents have been seized. The investigation of the case is on, the EOW stated.
