Prayagraj: Cyber fraudsters embezzled Rs 60 crore of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana funds after hacking the login ID and password of Kunda tehsil computers. The matter came to light after funds were found transferred to individuals including minors hailing from outside the state.Deputy director (Agriculture-Pratapgarh) has lodged an FIR at Cyber Crime police station under relevant sections of BNS and section 66 C and 66 D of IT Act against unknown persons for misuse of Kunda Tehsil ID/login and embezzlement in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana.The case concerns the suspicious and fraudulent registration of ineligible individuals, minors, and persons residing outside the district or state. Through these registrations, the govt portal was exploited to facilitate the disbursement of public funds to ineligible recipients. Initial investigations revealed that around three lakh beneficiaries fraudulently availed the benefits of the scheme.Investigations also revealed large-scale irregularities and organised execution of fraudulent registrations, with an estimated misappropriation of public funds exceeding Rs 60 crore.SP (Pratapgarh) Deepak Bhukar said, “Following the large amount of embezzlement, an FIR under section 318(4), 319(2), 338, 336(3), 340(2), and 61(2) of BNS and section 66 C and 66 D of Information Technology (Amendment) Act was registered.”The complainant stated, “A large-scale of suspicious registrations through ‘Direct Entry’ in Kunda tehsil under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana was surfaced.”To receive the benefits of the PM-Kisan Yojana, farmers are registered either by themselves or through Common Service Centres. In the standard process, the registration is forwarded from the PM-Kisan ID of the concerned tehsil and received at the district-level login, from where, after approval, it goes through a verification process at the state level and subsequently at Govt of India level. Following verification, the eligible beneficiary receives the scheme’s benefits.The complainant claimed, “Earlier, to facilitate the registration of farmers, the govt provided a ‘Direct Entry’ option at the Tehsil level login. Under this arrangement, once the beneficiary’s details were entered at the tehsil level, the registration was directly forwarded to the govt level without any testing or verification facility. This meant there was no verification or investigation process available at the Tehsil or district level for details entered via ‘Direct Entry’.”Misusing this system, a case of large-scale suspicious and fake registrations through the ID of tehsil Kunda has emerged. After the issue came to the notice of the district level, Govt of India removed the ‘Direct Entry’ option from the portal with immediate effect. With irregular registrations—including those of ineligible individuals, minor children, and people from outside the district and state—the govt portal was misused, resulting in improper payments of govt funds.The SP said, “The embezzlement was carried out in an organised manner, where the ID/login of tehsil Kunda was misused to create a massive number of fake registrations. Investigations also revealed that govt funds amounting to over approximately Rs 60 crore have been transferred.”
