Post News Network
Deepak Mahato
Bhubaneswar, Feb 10: The horticulture department has given a clean chit to its officials in the hacking and fund swindling case under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).
An official communiqué by the office of the director of horticulture to the commissioner-cum-secretary of the panchayati raj department mentions that the fake transfers were made by unknown hackers.
The letter mentions that the horticulture director is discreetly probing the illegal fund transfer, and is trying to ascertain if any official authorised to handle digital signature certificates (DSC) has handed it over to hackers.
The horticulture department last Friday had lodged an FIR with the Bolangir police at the directive of the district collector stating that the MNREGS website was hacked and money of beneficiaries swindled.
A special team, including cyber-forensic experts, was set up to detect the case. Police so far have questioned more than 10 people in connection with the case.
The horticulture department has assured the panchayati raj commissioner-cum-secretary of taking stringent action against any official found to be involved in the fraud.
“During October 2014, the undersigned came to know 21.10.2014 that some fake/unknown fund transfer orders (FTOs) were shown in the MNREGA website under material component under the horticulture department of Bolangir district under MGNREGA scheme,” the communiqué read.
According to the letter, the department verified that the transactions were not made using the DSCs of the horticulture department. The letter states that the first signatory is junior accountant Radheshyam Meher, and the second signatory is assistant director of horticulture K Sudarsan.
However, it was found that both the signatories were the same person identified as Jagabandhu Sahu.
“The DSC names were Jagabandhu Sahu for both first and second signatories. No Jagabandhu Sahu is working in this district under the horticulture organisation. I enquired with the divisional officer, Bolangir and he also informed that nobody named Jagabandhu Sahu is working in the forest department,” the letter said.
The department subsequently informed the Bolangir collector who instructed the undersigned to lodge an FIR against the name of the suspicious vendor as per the information provided by the State Bank of India (SBI), Patnagarh branch.
However, the district police in its course of investigation have learnt that a former bank employee used his connections to open several accounts in the Patnagarh branch of SBI using fake documents and morphed photographs. Police officials learnt the former bank employee had joined hands with a contractual block-level employee who is believed to have provided vital information about the website on MNREGS horticulture fund beneficiaries.
