Charge sheet submitted against 2 alleged frauds
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 01 2022:
Cyber Crime police station, Manipur submitted a charge sheet against two persons yesterday in connection with their alleged involvement in bogus approval of at least 933 beneficiaries of PM-KISAN scheme in respect of Bishnupur district without any knowledge of the district administration concerned in the year 2020.The charge sheet was submitted before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West against Khoirom Boby (30) s/o Brojen of Phubala Makha Leikai and Gaithoilung Kamson (27) s/o Meikinlung Kamson of Kakhulong Paona Bazar The charge sheet was submitted after completion of an investigation which was carried out based on a complaint lodged by then DC Bishnupur Neeta Arambam on June 27, 2020 .
The complaint said that the district administration had learnt about the existence of an unknown system user by the name of M Chaoba, LDC, PM-KISAN and he had approved at least 933 beneficiaries of PM-KISAN in respect of Bishnupur district without any knowledge of the district administration in the year 2020 .
During the course of investigation, it was found that the mobile number used in the commission of the crime was registered in the name of Khoirom Boby.
In the follow up action, two other persons namely; Khoirom Roshan of Phubala Makha Mamang Leikai and co-accused Gaithoilung Kamson were arrested on July 14, 2020 .
Some incriminating items were also seized from their possession.
Gaithoilung Kamson also revealed that he was engaged on contract basis in the Department of Agriculture as a computer programmer under ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency) in the year 2014 .
He was utilized as a computer operator at the Directorate of Agriculture, Sanjenthong from November 2018 and was assigned to work on online web portal management, MIS and all other information technology related activities of PM-KISAN.
The charge sheet submitted by the Cyber Crime police station said that when the scheme was launched in February, 2019, he had created a fake account for PM-KISAN scheme impersonating as various officials of Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Noney districts, and used those accounts/user IDs to upload and approve many beneficiaries from various districts in the PM- KISAN web portal without the knowledge and approval of the concerned district official Gaithoilung Kamson left the contract job in November 2019 as he got selected for the post of computer operator at Manipur Technical University.
Even after he left Agriculture Department, Gaithoilung Kamson used the PM-KISAN, State Nodal Officer's login credential to login into the PM-KISAN web portal and continued his nefarious activities The charge sheet further mentioned that K Boby had been working as an authorized CSC (Common Service Centre) agent since 2019 and lots of farmers from his localities and nearby areas approached him for uploading forms and availing PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi fund.
K Boby uploaded farmers' data in the portal using his CSC account by charging some amount of money.
In the course of the investigation, it was established that there was no one by the name of M Chaoba, LDC in Bishupur DC office.
K Boby provided his mobile phone to Gaithoilung Kamson to create fake employee account in PM-KISAN web portal and the latter created the fake account using the login credential of Manipur State Nodal Officer of PM-KISAN.
The accused persons had committed forgery by making false electronic records with intent to commit fraud and cheating, the charge sheet said.
It also mentioned that some of the beneficiaries who were approved using the fake user ID were not farmers but they got monetary benefit of PM-KISAN from the Government of India which is meant to be given to farmers only.
Thus the accused persons cheated the Government in order to earn some money from the applicants.