Bhubaneswar, Aug 2: One more accused was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Bhubaneswar on Wednesday in an agro-equipment fraud case.
EOW sources said Prahallad Meshua was arrested from Bheden in Bargarh district, u/s 409/420, 468, 471, and 120-B IPC, R/w Sec. 66 (C) and 66 (D) of the IT Act, 2000.
Earlier, five accused persons, including the main accused, Srinath Rana, were arrested in this case by the EOW.
The arrests were made on the basis of a case filed by K.G. Sree Charan, Director of M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.
Sree Charan alleged that Srinath Rana, the former regional manager of the company, misappropriated a subsidy amount of Rs 5 crore by fraudulently using the company’s login ID and password.
During the investigation, it was found that M/s Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd., a Bangalore-based company having its branch office at Baramunda, Bhubaneswar, was dealing with the business of supplying paddy transplanters to farmers across the country and also delivering services and supplies to the Odisha Government under various subsidy schemes.
Accused Srinath Rana, who was earlier working as a regional manager in the company, was authorised to register the sale of machines in Odisha and to facilitate subsidies to the beneficiaries.
During the period from 2017–21, accused Rana, without the knowledge of the firm, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the arrested accused Prahallad Meshua, proprietor of Subhalaxmi Traders, Bargarh, and other fraudsters and fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 556 paddy trans-planters with fake engine and chassis numbers of machines.
He managed to get the release of a subsidy amount to the tune of about Rs 7.16 crore in favour of the farmers and beneficiaries by the Government.
Soon after the release of the subsidy, the accused persons lured the beneficiaries by giving them some token amount and grabbed the major subsidy amount.
