Angul: Angul police Saturday arrested the former manager of a bank here for his alleged involvement in a case where Rs 59 lakh was siphoned off from one of the official bank accounts of Angul collector, police said. He was subsequently produced in the court the same day.
According to Angul superintendent of police (SP) Jagmohan Meena, the amount was withdrawn between December 15, 2017 and May 31, 2018 by forging the seal of the then collector Anil Samal. The incident came to the fore after present collector Manoj Kumar Mohanty stumbled upon this fraud during the September audit.
Mohanty registered a case against the then bank manager Shakti Vedant Das with the Angul police. SP Meena informed that on the basis of the complaint registered by the collector, Das has been arrested from Cuttack where he worked for a different bank.
According to the complaint, an account was opened with the local branch of a bank in the name of the collector in the year 2014-15. An amount of Rs 59 lakh donated by Tata Sponge Company for construction of a road and renovation of a building was deposited in the account.
The amount was there in the account as the said work was yet to be done. The passbook at the collector’s office use to show the account balance along with interest. That said, the fraud came to notice during the cashbook audit this month.
Subsequently, more skeletons stumbled out of the cupboard. The accused manager had a role to play in forging the seal of the then collector to withdraw the money, the cops hinted.
Collector Mohanty also mentions in his complaint that the account did not have a cheque book. The manager, however, had withdrawn the money through eight cheques. Besides, he had put the seal of the collector and district magistrate to lay his hands on the money. The incumbent collector said the money had been withdrawn using the seal of the collector and district magistrate – which is unusual. The administration uses the seal of only the collector to withdraw money when needed.
That said, Mohanty did not rule out involvement of employees of district administration in the incident and said, “Stringent action would be taken against anyone whose involvement is proven in an investigation.” Further probe is underway into the incident.
In a fresh development to the incident, the said bank has re-deposited Rs 59,41,481 to the collector’s account, collector Mohanty confirmed.
PNN