Lucknow: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested the director of a private firm for causing a loss of Rs 15 crore to the exchequer by producing fake bills to claim subsidy from the state government.
The accused, Rajendran Subba Naidu, was arrested from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu late Wednesday night.
Special director general, law and order, Prashant Kumar said that Rajendran Subba Naidu was the director of a private firm which had acquired a government tender of shipping sugar to foreign countries.
“However, he produced fake bills of shipment to take subsidies from the state government,” he said. Seven FIRs were lodged in different police stations of the state in this connection.
An EOW official said that Subba Naidu and four others had been running this racket since 2014. He said that the kingpin of the racket, Pandu Morbi Shetty, is currently lodged in Bengaluru central jail in another case. The officer said that a production warrant would be issued against Shetty soon.
“We have secured a non-bailable warrant against three persons from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. They are still elusive,” the officer said.
He added that Shetty and others had floated a company, Sri Venkateswara Global Trading Pvt Ltd, and Rajendran was made the director. The company got the tender for selling items produced in UP and Delhi in foreign countries.
“Soon, the bills of shipment to sugar mill companies were found to be fake after which an FIR was lodged against him and others in Pasgaon police station of Kheri district in 2020,” the officer said.
As per the deal, 2500 metric tonnes of white sugar produced by a sugar mill under government licence was to be exported by Rajendran’s company. Following this, Rs 2.6 crore was given to Rajendran’s company.
“Rajendran gave two invoices of a fake shipping company named Ganesh Shipping,” the officer said.
During an internal audit, no company by the name of Ganesh Shipping was found after which the sugar mill sought other details which Rajendran failed to provide, said the officer.
Similar FIRs were registered against the accused and his company in Bahraich, Bareilly, Amroha and Kheri. In 2022, the case was transferred to EOW.
