2 held for fraudulent enrolment of PM-Kisan beneficiaries
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, December 01 2022:
Cyber Crime Police Station, Manipur has filed a charge sheet against two people for enrolling 933 beneficiaries under the PM-Kisan scheme in 2020 without the permission of Bishnupur district administration.
The charge sheet was submitted to the court of CJM, Imphal West on Wednesday, mentioning Khoirom Boby (30) s/o Brojen 6f Phubala Makha Leikai and Gaithoilung Kamson (27) s/o Meikinlung Kamson of Kakhulong, Paona Bazar as accused, to give cognizance for commencing trial upon the two.
The charge sheet was filed after a detailed investigation into a complaint made by Bishnupur DC Neeta Arambam on July 27, 2020.The complaint stated that around 933 beneficiaries were approved by an unidentified user registered as PM-Kisan Scheme LDC M Chaoba, without the approval of the district administration in 2020.During investigation, the mobile phone number used in committing the crime was found to be registered in the name of Khoirom Boby.
The investigation continued and Boby and Gaithoilung Kamson were arrested on July 23, 2020 with incriminating evidences.
On questioning, Gaithoilung disclosed that he was contracted as a computer programmer at the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) of Agriculture Department in 2014 .
In November of 2018, he was utilised as a computer operator for Directorate of Agriculture, Sanjenthong and assigned to online web portal management, concerning information technology of MIS and PM-Kisan.
After the scheme was launched in February, 2019, he created a fake PM-Kisan account and used the identities of different officials of Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Noney and approved many beneficiaries.
Later, he was selected as a computer operator for Manipur Technical University the same year and thus, quit the contract work.
Meanwhile, accused K Boby worked as an authorised Computer Service Centre (CSC) agent in 2019 and enrolled farmers from his and surrounding localities under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi for a price.
The investigation further found that there was no LDC by the name of M Chaoba in Bishnupur DC Office.
Accused K Boby had given his phone number to Gaithoilung Kamson to create a fake employee account and another fake account to log into the Manipur State Nodal Officer for PM Kisan.
The charge sheet mentioned that many beneficiaries were approved using the fake ID.
Some of the approved beneficiaries are not genuine farmers and availing the benefits meant for farmers.