In a significant breakthrough, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch police on Wednesday cracked the case of alleged embezzlement of Rs 5-crore fund of the Subarnapur National Health Mission (NHM) by arresting two persons in this connection.
The accused were identified as Rajkishore Nayak of Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district and and Ananta Charan Pradhan of Pipili in Puri district. The duo were arrested under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120 (B) of the IPC and Section 66 (C) & (D) of IT Acr and forwarded to the court of Subarnapur SDJM. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the Subarnapur CDMO. As per the FIR, an amount of Rs 5,01,50,000 was unauthorisedly diverted from the account of Zilla Swasthya Samiti, National Health Mission (ZSS, NHM) of Subarnapur on April 7, 2021 by hacking the NHM Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
During probe, the EOW ascertained that Rajkishore Nayak previously served as an Accountant on temporary basis in NHM, Subarnapur and he left the job on December 24, 2020.
Later, he was appointed temporarily as an Accountant in the Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) at Olatpur. In March 2021, Nayak hatched a criminal conspiracy with Ananta Charan Pradhan and others, and generated an e-cheque amounting to Rs 5,01,50,000 by unauthorisedly hacking the portal of NHM system i.e. PFMS. They manufactured duplicate seal of the Subarnapur CDMO and ADMO and put the same on the e-cheque and placed the cheque at SBI, Subarnapur for clearance.
On April 7, 2021, the amount was diverted to the account of of a firm named ‘NATURALS.’The mobile phone used for manufacturing the e-cheque has been seized along with other incriminating articles.
Out of the siphoned amount, around Rs 3.30 crore has been freezed during the investigation, so far. Earlier, Samir Kumar Pati, an employee of ‘NATURALS’, was arrested in this connection by the EOW.