Bhubaneswar, Nov 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) In a breakthrough, the Odisha Vigilance has arrested an absconding Senior Revenue Assistant (SRA) in Anugola district of the state on charges of misappropriating government funds amounting to over Rs 3.03 crore, the agency said on Thursday.
The accused was identified as Sasikanta Rana, SRA of Derabish Block in Kendrapada District of Odisha. The vigilance directorate, through a statement, stated that Rana had been absconding for a long period after the revelations of large-scale financial misappropriation exceeding Rs.3.03 crore came to light. The sleuths, through digital tracking, finally traced Rana in Anugola and arrested him late Wednesday night.
The accused Rana is being forwarded to the Court of Special Judge Vigilance, Kataka on Thursday. Following the receipt of the allegations regarding the embezzlement of government funds over Rs.3.03 crore, Odisha Vigilance carried out a thorough verification of the matter.
“The extensive investigations by Odisha Vigilance revealed that Sri Rana systematically siphoned off government funds across two consecutive postings while serving in charge of the establishment section, a role responsible for processing salaries, arrears, and pensions,” the agency further noted.
During his tenures at Rajkanika and Derabish blocks, Sri Rana misappropriated Rs.1,46,68,118 and Rs.1,56,97,725, respectively, taking the total amount siphoned off to Rs.3,03,65,843.
The vigilance during the course of investigation also ascertained that the accused Rana manipulated disbursement records by processing fraudulent claims for salaries, arrears, gratuity, unutilized leave, and pensions in the names of retired and deceased employees in the HRMS Portal. The agency also found that the accused illegally diverted salaries, arrears and other claim amounts to the bank accounts of his family members and relatives in place of those of the actual beneficiaries.
“Instead of routing these funds to rightful beneficiaries, he replaced their bank account details with private Bank account numbers being operated in SBI, Bank of India and Indian Bank, Kendrapada belonging to himself and his family members (spouse, father, brother) and one relative executing transfers via NEFT,” The agency said.
In this connection, two cases (42/26 and 43/26) have been registered at the Kataka Vigilance Police Station against the accused Rana, under sections 13(2) and 13(1) (a) of the PC Amendment Act, 2018 and 316(5), 318(4), 336(3), 344, 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Source: IANS
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