Two Held For Siphoning Off Rs 5 Cr Govt Funds By Hacking NHM Portal In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two persons in Sonepur district for allegedly embezzling Rs 5 crore government funds.

The accused have been identified as Rajkishore Nayak of Bhawanipatna and Ananta Charan Pradhan of Pipili.

According to an EOW press release, the duo was arrested after CDMO, Sonepur, lodged a complaint about Rs.5,01,50,000 being unauthorisedly diverted from the account of Zilla Swasthya Samiti on April 7 by hacking the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) of the National Health Mission (NHM).

The investigation revealed that Nayak, who was working as an accountant on a temporary basis in NHM till December 24, 2020, conspired with Pradhan and others and generated one e-cheque amounting to Rs.5,01,50,000 by unauthorisedly hacking the portal. They placed that e-cheque at SBI, Sonepur, for clearing after putting the duplicate seal of ADMO and CDMO, Sonepur, on it.

On April 7, the amount was diverted to the account of M/s NATURALS.

Of the siphoned amount, approximately Rs.3.30 crore has been freezed. The mobile handset used for manufacturing e-cheque has also been seized.

The EOW had arrested an employee of M/s NATURALS, Samir Kumar Patiwas, on May 5. 

Further investigation is on, the release added.