Police identify accused from Pune in ₹3.13-crore crop insurance scam

The police have named some accused from Pune district in the ₹3.13-crore Dharashiv crop insurance scam

The police have named some accused from Pune district in the ₹3.13-crore Dharashiv crop insurance scam. According to the Dharashiv police, 19 of the 24 persons named in the FIR have been arrested in connection with the bogus crop insurance scheme scam uncovered last week.

According to the Dharashiv police, 19 of the 24 persons named in the FIR have been arrested in connection with the bogus crop insurance scheme scam uncovered last week. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The state agriculture department had complained to the police in April about the fraud related to 2,095 hectares wherein 1,170 farmers had applied for crop insurance scheme. The farmers were to pay ₹1 while the remaining amount was scheduled to be paid by the government. The state government lost ₹3.13 crore in the scam spread over seven districts of Maharashtra, including Pune rural.

Ganesh Kangude, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), chief, said, “The complaint was lodged in April. The state had paid ₹3.13 crore as premium and could have ended up losing ₹15.68 crore in the scam perpetrated by accused from Beed, Dharashiv, Pune rural, Nanded, Solapur and Parbhani districts. The accused showed government land as their own and obtained crop insurance benefits meant for genuine and deserving farmers.”

Dharashiv MLA Kailas Patil said, “An organised effort was made to grab the insurance facilities of genuine farmers by submitting bogus documents. We demand that all culprits are arrested by the task force and farmers get justice.”