UP EOW nabs fugitive accused in paddy procurement after 10-year hunt

Meerut (UP), Jul 24 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Police's Economic Offences Wing (Meerut Zone) on Thursday arrested a fugitive accused after 10 years in a high-value paddy procurement fraud case from Delhi, the agency said.
     Suresh Sharma was apprehended in Delhi's Saket area by a joint team of the EOW and local police.
     Sharma, a resident of Alipur Khalsa village in Bulandshahr district, had been absconding for several years in connection with a 2015 fraud case registered at Kotwali Dehat police station under multiple erstwhile IPC sections, including 420 (cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
     The case involves a scam in which the accused, posing as representatives of the firm "Sons & Co.", used forged documents to fraudulently procure paddy worth over Rs 2.94 crore from the UP government and later sold it using fake invoices, the EOW said in a statement.
     Another firm, Balaji Trading Company, owned by co-accused Mahesh Chand Sharma, allegedly bought paddy worth Rs 2.16 crore from Bulandshahr's grain market, it added.
     "Suresh Sharma, not officially a director of the firm, is accused of fabricating documents to falsely show government-authorised procurement. The EOW's investigation also revealed that Sharma, along with co-accused Veerkaran Awasthi and Rittik Awasthi, had created fake authorisation letters to convince farmers to sell their produce through them," it said.
     The accused allegedly failed to make payments to the tune of Rs 3.30 crore and fled. The Economic Offences Wing had been tracking Sharma for several days before successfully arresting him in Delhi, it said.
     "The operation was supervised by EOW (Meerut Zone) Superintendent of Police Rajiv Dixit, and officers including Dharmesh Kumar, Manoj Kumar Birla and Vijay Kant Sharma," the statement said.
     The arrest was made based on credible technical surveillance and inputs from other agencies, it said, adding that Sharma is currently in custody and further investigations are underway.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)