Next time if you wish to donate funds for the Cuttack Branch of the Red Cross, think twice before doing so. Because you never know that the donation you make for a public cause could actually be used to foot the liquor bills of an alcoholic Government clerk.
The district administration here has unearthed a ‘Red Cross fund fraud’ in which nearly `16 lakh has been embezzled in a single year. It has handed over the scandal to the police for investigation with a request to take appropriate legal action against the tainted head clerk Sayed Naimul Hossain, who has already been placed under suspension since October last.
“After receiving a written complaint from Honorary Secretary of Cuttack Branch of Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) Sanjibita Ray, who is also the District Emergency Officer, we have registered an FIR under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of IPC and started investigation,” informed local lalbagh police station Inspector Debadutta Baral.
But Baral failed to convincingly explain as to why the named accused in the FIR has not been arrested yet even as the complaint was forwarded to him by the office of the district Collector, who is also Chairman of the Cuttack Branch of Red Cross. Although the complaint was filed on January 25, the FIR was registered five days later on January 30. The Commissionerate Police have not made any progress in the case yet.
When contacted, Sanjibita Ray told this correspondent that financial irregularities and misappropriation of the district Red Cross fund were going on here for over two decades now. “The fraud of `15.64 lakh was detected only of one year. If the accounts of the previous years, particularly after the 1999 Super Cyclone, are audited, this would turn out to be biggest charity fraud ever in the State,” she claimed.