Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance Department Wednesday arrested a bank officer for allegedly embezzling government funds of over Rs 5 crore with the help of his father, officials said.
The accused is the branch head of a small finance bank in Odisha’s Bhadrak district, they said.
The fraud targeted the office of the Block Education Officer (BEO), Korei in Jajpur, resulting in a total loss of Rs 5.56 crore, the department said in a statement.
During the investigation, the vigilance officers found that the accused committed the fraud with the help of his father, who is a retired headmaster and was re-engaged at the BEO in Korei, it said.
His father illegally accessed the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) and targeted the IDs of 13 retired teachers, the statement said.
The duration of the fraud spanned nearly six years, from November 2018 to September 2024, which was detected during an audit, it said.
The father of the accused is absconding, and efforts are on to nab him, it added.
