Junior Agriculture Minister Bhagirath Choudhary returns subsidy after Express Investigation

2 min readUpdated: Jul 28, 2026 02:20 PM IST Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Bhagirath Choudhary.Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Bhagirath Choudhary, who availed a Rs 99-lakh subsidy for his cucumber farm through a scheme under his own ministry, has refunded the subsidy, the Centre told Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This comes exactly a month after The Indian Express published an investigation, detailing how Choudhary received the Rs 99-lakh subsidy through a horticulture scheme under his ministry.In a written reply to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, Ramnath Thakur, Choudhary’s colleague and Minister of State, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, said, “Shri Bhagirath Choudhary has communicated that he has refunded the s