Baripada: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch of Odisha Police has launched an investigation into the alleged swindling of nearly Rs 10 crore from the bank account of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) fund in Mayurbhanj.
Sources said a team of EOW from Bhubaneswar visited Baripada on Sunday and then went to Bhanjpur police station to initiate the probe into the matter.
The move came two days after the branch manager of Bank of India, Baripada lodged a complaint with the police alleging that the DMF money of the Zilla Parishad (ZP), Mayurbhanj was withdrawn and transferred online to different accounts between April 10 and 18 in phases.
It was stated that nearly Rs10 crore was transferred to other accounts within a span of eight days. The matter came to light after the account section staff of the Zilla Parishad updated the account and informed the higher authorities about the irreguolarities.
Mayurbhanj ZP president Bharati Hansdah reportedly said that around Rs 2 crore was withdrawn from the Bank of India’s Baripada branch recently for development work.
As more money was required for a project, the staff visited the bank and found that the remaining fund of nearly Rs 10 crore had already been withdrawn from the account.
An FIR was then filed at Bhanjpur police station. The case was later handed over to the EOW for a thorough probe. Following this, a EOW officials visited Baripada as well as Bhanjapur police station and initiated the probe. Further details are awaited.
