Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch on Saturday arrested three persons including the managing director of an Agro firm for allegedly siphoning off government subsidy money on the pretext of providing agriculture tools to farmers.
The MD of Annapurna Agro International Pvt Ltd, Pradeep Kumar Acharya and propiter of Das Traders and Agro agency, Ranjan Das and Seikh Fayaz have been forwarded to SDJM court here.
They had allegedly siphoned off Rs 12 crore in Direct Benefit Scheme (DBT).
EOW DSP AK Mishra who investigated the case learnt that the accused had duped gullible farmers in the name of subsidy of agriculture machines.
During the course of investigation, the EOW came to know that Annapurna Agro industry, a Balasore-based firm had the dealership of various agriculture apparatus like paddy threshers, power pumps and tractor rotavators. The company had appointed 115 dealers across the State.
The firm had allegedly siphoned off crore of rupees between 2016-17 and 2019-20 by preparing fake invoice and data. The firm had showed to the government that it had furnished 381 agriculture machines to farmers.
