PRAYAGRAJ, Aug. 28 -- A fraud exceeding Rs 60 crore has been detected in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme, allegedly carried out through the misuse of the 'direct entry' option available in the Kunda Tehsil login. Following a departmental inquiry, the Agriculture Department lodged a formal complaint with the cyber police, leading to the registration of an FIR against unidentified persons. Deputy director of Agriculture Ashwani Kumar Singh submitted a complaint along with supporting documents to the police cyber cell, seeking legal action in the matter. Acting on the complaint, the Cyber Police Station registered a case under relevant sections and commenced an investigation. SP Pratapgarh Deepak Bhooker said that on the complaint of deputy director Agriculture, investigations have been initiated after lodging an FIR against 1700 IP addresses and fake recipients of the benefits under the scheme. According to officials, farmers seeking benefits under the PM-Kisan scheme are required to register either through their mobile phones or at Jan Seva Kendras. The applications are first processed at the tehsil level before forwarded to the district administration. After verification at the district, state, and central levels, eligible beneficiaries receive financial assistance under the scheme. However, a 'direct entry' facility had been introduced at the tehsil level to accommodate genuine farmers who were unable to register through the regular process. Applications submitted through this option were reportedly routed directly to the central government level, bypassing the standard verification mechanism. During scrutiny of records, authorities discovered large-scale suspicious registrations through the Kunda Tehsil login. Sources said several beneficiaries registered through this route were found to be ineligible, including minors and individuals residing outside the district and even outside the state. The irregularities prompted a departmental investigation, which revealed that 3,18,846 registrations had been made using the direct entry facility. The alleged fraudulent disbursal linked to these registrations is estimated to exceed Rs 60 crore. Following the findings, the direct entry option was removed from the portal. The disclosure of the scam has created concern within administrative circles and raised questions about oversight mechanisms in the implementation of the scheme. On Wednesday, deputy director of Agriculture Ashwani Kumar Singh formally lodged a complaint with the police, after which an FIR was registered against unknown persons. Cyber police have begun investigating the role of those involved in the fraudulent registrations and the possible misuse of official login credentials....