Bhubaneswar: In a major corruption crackdown, the Odisha Vigilance has arrested former Senior Assistant Santosh Kumar Panda and five of his associates for allegedly siphoning off more than Rs 8 crore from the state exchequer through fraudulent treasury transactions linked to pension payments.
The accused, who previously worked at the Sub-Treasury Office in Chandbali of Bhadrak district, was produced before the Special Vigilance Court in Balasore after investigators uncovered what they described as a long-running financial manipulation scheme operating between 2018 and 2023.
According to the Vigilance investigation, the fraud revolved around the alleged misuse of the Integrated Financial Management System, a digital platform used for processing government financial transactions. Officials alleged that genuine pension, gratuity, and commutation bills were initially cleared and paid to actual beneficiaries before being secretly reused months later for illegal withdrawals.
Investigators claimed the accused waited several months after legitimate pension payments were completed before re-entering the original Pension Payment Order details into the system. Instead of routing funds to the real pensioners, the money was allegedly diverted into third-party accounts linked to associates through forged Government Pension Order IDs generated on the portal.
The probe further indicated that over 100 fraudulent bills were allegedly processed during the five years, resulting in the transfer of Rs 8.04 crore into dozens of private bank accounts connected to multiple individuals.
Vigilance officials also suspect serious lapses in verification procedures at the treasury level, alleging that approvals were granted without checking whether the bills had already been settled or whether beneficiary details matched original records.
Along with Santosh Kumar Panda, the agency arrested Siba Shankar Samal, Deb Shankar Samal, Prafulla Kumar Rout, Sandip Kumar Mitra, and Abhay Kumar Panda in connection with the case.
The case has been registered under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code related to criminal conspiracy, forgery, criminal breach of trust, and falsification of records.
Officials said the investigation is continuing to identify other individuals and government officials who may have played a role in facilitating the alleged embezzlement.
