Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance Sunday arrested four more employees in connection with the alleged embezzlement of over Rs 9.24 crore from the office of the Superintending Engineer, R&B Division-I, Bhubaneswar, taking the number of arrests in the case to six.
Those arrested were Dipak Kumar Routray and Laxman Biswal, staffers of the R&B Division-I office, and two data entry operators, Rajib Lochan Senapati and Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra.
Vigilance said further investigation revealed that the four allegedly colluded with Section Officer Banalata Mohanty and Junior Assistant Bibhudutta Nayak, who were earlier arrested in connection with the financial fraud. The four were working under Mohanty and Nayak and allegedly received substantial amounts of the embezzled government funds in their personal bank accounts, the agency said.
The fraud, involving Rs 9,24,10,193, allegedly took place between 2022-23 and 2025-26 through the generation of fake sanction orders and bills and their illegal processing through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
Fraudulent bills were raised in the names of retired employees towards provisional gratuity and unutilised leave salary, besides bogus claims against the office contingency fund. While genuine bills carried the bank details of actual beneficiaries, the fraudulent bills allegedly contained substituted account numbers, said Vigilance in a statement.
The money was subsequently routed through 77 bank accounts belonging to 48 people, including relatives, acquaintances and associates of the accused. The agency said some recipients allegedly transferred portions of the money back to the accused or withdrew cash and handed it over to them.
The investigation has also revealed that relatives and associates of Mohanty and Nayak were among the account holders used to receive the diverted funds. Mohanty’s son and driver were also allegedly among the recipients.
Following detection of the fraud, Rs 3.96 crore of the embezzled amount has been recovered by the administrative authority, Vigilance said.
A case has been registered at the Bhubaneswar Vigilance police station against Mohanty, Nayak and others under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Further investigation is underway.
