Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance has detained three more government officials, including a treasury employee, related to the alleged embezzlement of public funds totaling Rs 9.24 crore from the Superintending Engineer’s office of R&B Division-I in Bhubaneswar.
The individuals taken into custody are Krushna Chandra Behera, a senior accountant at the District Treasury Office in Bhubaneswar; Biswanath Das, a senior assistant at the R&B Division in Puri; and Kumud Sahoo, a peon at R&B Division-I, Bhubaneswar. A statement from Vigilance indicated that all three were presented before the Special Judge for Vigilance in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
The case centers around the alleged misappropriation of Rs 9,24,10,193 within the R&B Division-I, Bhubaneswar. Vigilance has filed a case invoking pertinent sections of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, along with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Previously, on September 27, six suspects, including the primary accused Banalata Mohanty (Section Officer) and Bibhudutta Nayak (Junior Assistant) from the SE, R&B Division-I office, were arrested and have since been placed in judicial custody.
Investigations have revealed that Bibhudutta Nayak transferred Rs 3.90 lakh to Krushna Chandra Behera through PhonePe on 11 occasions between March 2025 and July 2026 to enable the approval of fabricated and fraudulent bills.
Biswanath Das, who had formerly worked as a Junior Assistant in the same office, is accused of supplying the bank account information of his mother, Nayana Das, as well as his own account and that of his relative, Kanhu Charan Behera, to the main accused for the purpose of receiving misappropriated funds for various categories, including provisional gratuity and unused leave salary.
His mother’s account received approximately Rs 50 lakh, while Kanhu Charan Behera’s account was credited with Rs 15 lakh, and his own account saw Rs 37 lakh. It is alleged that he transferred a portion of these funds back to Bibhudutta Nayak and Banalata Mohanty via PhonePe, withdrawing the remainder in cash.
Similarly, peon Kumud Sahoo is accused of providing his wife Bijuli Sahoo’s bank account information to the main accused, leading to an amount of Rs 11,25,120 being deposited into her account for provisional gratuity. Sahoo is alleged to have transferred this amount to his own account and withdrawn it in cash across three installments in collusion with the main accused.
The investigation into this case is ongoing.
