Bhadrak: The Odisha Vigilance on Sunday arrested former senior assistant Santosh Kumar Panda of Chandbali Sub-Treasury Office along with five of his associates – Siba Shankar Samal, Deb Shankar Samal, Prafulla Kumar Rout, Sandip Kumar Mitra, and Abhay Kumar Panda – for their alleged involvement in a Rs 8 crore financial scam.
Panda is accused of masterminding a sophisticated conspiracy that led to the misappropriation of Rs 8,04,76,146 from the state exchequer between 2018 and 2023. He allegedly exploited the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) by taking advantage of the trust-based digital workflow between clerks and approving officers.
According to a Vigilance release, the modus operandi began with a legitimate pension, gratuity, or commutation of pension bill being processed and paid to a genuine beneficiary. After allowing a cooling period of five to six months to avoid immediate suspicion, Panda would use his official login credentials to re-enter the same Pension Payment Order (PPO) number and pensioner ID in the Gratuity Payment Menu on the IFMS portal. Instead of routing the payment to the original pensioner’s account, he would generate a new “Third-Party GPO (Govt. Pension Order) ID”, diverting the funds to accounts controlled by his associates.
It is being suspected that Sub-Treasury Officer, who held approving authority, cleared these bills through a separate login without proper verification of previous payments or beneficiary details.
Vigilance officials have identified 102 fraudulent bills processed between July 25, 2018, and May 4, 2023. The siphoned money was channeled into 44 different bank accounts belonging to 37 private individuals linked to Panda.
A case has been registered at Vigilance Cell police station against Panda and his associates under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.
Further investigation is underway to trace any other associates or government officials, who may have facilitated the embezzlement, the release added.
