EOW arrests two for misappropriating Rs 5 crore govt fund

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Sonepur: A team of officials of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) Tuesday afternoon arrested two persons namely Rajkishore Nayak of Bhawanipatna and Ananta Charan Pradhan of Pipili.

The two fraudsters were arrested in connection with EOW PS case (No.-08, Dated-01.05.2021 U/s 420/467/468/471/120 (B) of IPC, r/w Section 66 (C) & (D) of IT Act, 2008. They have been forwarded to the SDJM Court at Sonepur Wednesday, an official of the team said.

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According to sources, a case was earlier registered based on an FIR of Subarnapur chief district medical officer (CDMO). An amount of Rs 5,01,50,000/- had been unauthorisedly diverted from the bank account of Zilla Swasthya Samiti, National Health Mission (ZSS, NHM) in Subarnapur district April 7, 2021 by allegedly hacking the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) of NHM, the FIR stated.

During investigation, it was ascertained that Rajkishore was previously serving as Accountant on ad-hoc basis in NHM, Subarnapur from April 18, 2016. He left the job in December 24, 2020.

Subsequently, he got appointed temporarily as Accountant in Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) at Olatpur.

However, in the month of March this year, Rajkishore entered into a criminal conspiracy with Ananta and a few others. They generated one e-Cheque amounting to Rs 5,01,50,000/- by unauthorisedly hacking the portal of NHM and its PFMS. Then, the miscreants manufactured duplicate seal of the ADMO and CDMO of Subarnapur.

The accused men used the duplicate seals on the e-Cheque and later placed that at SBI’s branch at Sonepur for clearing. An amount of Rs.5,01,50,000/- was diverted to the account of a firm named M/s Naturals April 7, 2021, the EOW official added.

A mobile handset used for manufacturing the fake e-Cheque has been seized along with other incriminating articles. Out of the siphoned amount of over Rs 5 crore, an amount to a tune of Rs 3.30 crores has been frozen so far. Investigation of the financial fraud case is still underway, the official informed.

Notably, one more accused named Samir Kumar Pati who was an employee of M/s Naturals was earlier arrested and forwarded to the SDJM Court at Sonepur May 5, 2021.

PNN

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