EOW Arrests Two Officials For Fund Misappropriation In Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur

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Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing of Crime Branch, Odisha has arrested cashier of a block office and office assistant of a bank for misappropriation of over Rs 2 crore government fund.

The arrested persons are Nihar Ranjan Das, cashier of Block Office, Balikuda and Sanjay Samal, office Assistant of Union Bank of India, Arilo branch in Jagatsinghpur district.

The EOW, Bhubaneswar made the arrest following investigation into a complaint filed by Kalyan Saurav Dash, BDO of Balikuda in Jagatsinghpur with police. It was alleged in the FIR that the then Branch Manager, Union Bank of India, Arilo, Jagatsinghpur had unauthorisedly debited Rs 2,63,65,089 from the official accounts of BDO, Balikuda and misappropriated the amount.

The investigation revealed that Balikuda BDO was officially maintaining two saving bank accounts with Corporation Bank (now Union Bank of India), Arilo branch, Balikuda for dealing with the funds received under Ama Gaon Ama Bikash scheme and for Critical Gap Fund. During the local fund audit in December, 2020, the BDO came to know that there was unauthorised debit of Rs 2,61,89,272 and Rs 1,75,817 from the accounts maintained for Ama Gaon Ama Bikash fund and Critical Gap Fund respectively.

Nihar was working as the Cashier in the Block office and was dealing with the accounts during the relevant period. A considerable amount out of the above mentioned public money found having diverted to his personal account. Similarly, an amount of Rs 20 lakh has been diverted to the personal account of accused Sanjay Samal.

The then Branch Manager of the bank, Jugal Kishore Rout committed suicide in January after the misappropriation of funds came to light.