An accountant of Odisha Livestock Resources Development Society (OLRDS) was arrested by Khandagiri Police on Thursday on charges of forgery.
Janaki Ballav Sahoo, a senior accountant with the OLRDS, a body under the Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department, forged signatures of his CEO and withdrew cash to the tune of Rs 78 lakh from the office accounts. He purchased three cars with the misappropriated funds and deposited Rs 38 lakh in his wife’s name.
Police investigation revealed that Sahoo had forged the signatures of CEO of ORLDS Sanat Kumar Mishra and withdrew the cash through six cheques on three different dates. Since he was the custodian of cash and cheque books as senior accountant, no one else knew about the withdrawal of funds. Besides, the audit of accounts had long been over, the office was in no position to realise that such embezzlements had been carried out.
“When we saw the bank statements on Wednesday and found that large withdrawals have been made, we became suspicious and immediately reported the matter to Khandagiri Police,” Mishra said.
Sahoo was immediately taken into custody and put to questioning after which he spilled the beans. He had withdrawn a total of Rs 78,87,305 from two accounts of OLRDS.
The accountant purchased a Toyota Innova, Tata Indigo and Tata Indica using the funds. After that, he also deposited ` 38 lakh in the account of his wife. All the transactions had been carried over two months.