Five people were on Monday arrested by the Manipur Cyber Crime Police for allegedly involving in misuse of the PM-KISAN scheme.
Following a complaint filed by the deputy commissioner of Bishnupur district, the accused were arrested under section 406/419/420/465/468/34 of the IPC and 66 C/66 D IT Act. However, a district court released them on bail after furnishing a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh each on Monday.
The arrested persons have been identified as Khoirom Boby, 28, son of Kh Brojen of Phubala Makha Mamang Leikai; Khoirom Roshan, 29, son of Kh Ranjit of Phubala Makha Mamang Leikai; Gaithoilung Kamson, 37, son of Meikeilung Kamson of Kakhulung Paona Bazar; Kshetrimayum Bobo, 31 son of (L) Ksh Ganga of Thokchom Awang Leikai; Huirem Rishibosh, 30 son of (L) H Subolchandra of Thoubal Athokpam Mayai Leikai.
According to Bishnupur deputy commissioner Neeta Arambam, the district administration learned about the existence of one unidentified user by the name of Moirangthem Chaoba, LDC, who approved at least 933 beneficiaries of the PM-KISAN in respect of Bishnupur district without any knowledge of the district administration.
In a similar manner, Thoubal district deputy commissioner N Bandana Devi, reported that her office has detected a fraud user ID which entered or approved more than 33,800 applications in the portal during the period between May 30 and July 3 of this year. This has been done without the knowledge of the district officials for implementation of PM-KISAN scheme in the district.
During the police investigation for Bishnupur district, it was found that the arrested person namely G Kamson, working as a contract worker at directorate of agriculture, Manipur since 2018 but now working at Manipur Technical University as a computer operator, had allegedly created fake account for PM-KISAN scheme, implementing as various fake officials, for Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Noney.
Although he left contract work at the directorate of agriculture, he continued working and used the state admin PM-KISAN login credentials to login at the PM-KISAN web portal, as per the investigation report.
Kamson allegedly created a fake profile of Moirangthem Chaoba, LDC Bishnupur, and it was given to Kh Boby.
As many as 933 beneficiaries in the PM-KISAN portal were approved through a fake portal and Kh Boby collected farmers' details as he ran a CSC centre and gave to G Kamson through Kh Roshan and for entering and approving those farmers, Kh Boby gave G Kamson Rs 100-300 per application.
And for Thoubal district, the accused used fake profiles and approved beneficiaries. The police have prayed for 15 days judicial custody but the counsels of the accused sought bail claiming that the evidence against their clients was baseless.
