35-yr-old siphons off ₹92L from farmers’ fund, held

Pydhonie police arrested a 35-year-old Badlapur resident on Friday for allegedly siphoning off funds meant for farmers, worth ₹92.49 lakh, since 2017. The accused,

Pydhonie police arrested a 35-year-old Badlapur resident on Friday for allegedly siphoning off funds meant for farmers, worth ₹92.49 lakh, since 2017. The accused, Saurabh Suresh Horambhe, is an employee of a firm appointed by the Maharashtra Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited for disbursing the minimum guaranteed prices for crops to farmers across the state.

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According to the police, Horambe had misused the firm’s password to divert the funds into the accounts of five of his acquaintances, who are now on the run.

The state had appointed the firm to upload information pertaining to the online registration of farmers and their crop sale on the government portal. Horambhe was tasked with the work of maintaining information of the amount disbursed to the farmers, the police said.

The incident came to light in July, when the Maharashtra Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited, discovered that they were short on funds for farmers in Raigad, Thane, Usmanabad, Akola, Amravati and Parali. When they raised the issue with the contractor, the private firm conducted an internal inquiry.

“The firm wrote to the Maharashtra Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited on July 26, stating that Horambhe had used the company’s password to divert the funds meant for farmers to the accounts of his five acquaintances, and had allegedly siphoned off 92.49 lakh since 2017,” a police officer said.

Following this, an accountant on behalf of the Maharashtra Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited, filed a complaint against Horambe. A local court has remanded him in police custody till November 14. The police is scrutinising all the transactions linked to Horambhe and suspects the fraud amount is likely to rise in the coming days.