Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Sunday arrested four more staffers of the Office of the Superintending Engineer, Roads and Buildings (R&B) Division-I in Bhubaneswar in connection with the alleged misappropriation of around Rs 9.24 crore government funds in the last five years.
The latest arrests include Dipak Kumar Routray and Laxman Biswal, both peons in the office, along with private data entry operators Rajib Lochan Senapati and Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra, who were engaged by the primary accused. These four individuals are accused of colluding with Section Officer Banalata Mohanty and Junior Assistant Bibhudutta Nayak, who were arrested earlier in the case.
Investigation has revealed that the four staffers worked under Mohanty and Nayak and received substantial portions of the misappropriated funds in their personal bank accounts. Specifically, Routray allegedly received Rs 32,47,800, Biswal Rs 16,21,484, Senapati Rs 28,28,817, and Mohapatra Rs 35,69,098. All six accused persons are set to be produced before the court.
According to Vigilance officials, the fraud unfolded between the financial years 2022-23 and 2025-26. Mohanty and Nayak, both attached to the establishment section of the SE office, allegedly conspired with associates to generate fake sanction orders and bills. These fraudulent documents covered provisional gratuity and unutilised leave salary in the names of retired employees, as well as bogus claims against the office contingency fund. The forged bills were then processed unauthorisedly through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) to divert the money. While genuine bills contained the correct bank details of actual beneficiaries, the fake ones substituted account numbers belonging to relatives, acquaintances, and associates of the accused.
A total of 77 bank accounts linked to 48 individuals, including Mohanty’s son, driver and associates, as well as Nayak’s brothers and relatives, were used to receive the funds. Account holders later transferred portions back to the main accused or withdrew cash to hand over to them. Mohanty and Nayak were suspended on September 7 after the Superintending Engineer’s office detected the irregularities and initiated an internal inquiry.
Authorities have so far recovered Rs 3.96 crore of the embezzled amount. A case has been registered at the Bhubaneswar Vigilance police station under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Further investigation into the matter is continuing.