BERHAMPUR: Golanthara police on Sunday arrested the panchayat executive officer (PEO) of Laudigaon under Rangeilunda block in Ganjam on charges of misappropriating around Rs 1.37 crore government funds.
The accused is Samir Kumar Mishra. The fraud came to light after a complaint was filed by block development officer of Rangeilunda Biswajit Ray.
A resident of Aska, Samir had joined as the PEO of Keluapalli panchayat around six years back under a rehabilitation scheme after the death of his father who was also an executive officer.
The accused was also managing the affairs at Laudigaon panchayat since the last one year. However, after appointment of Susanta Pattanaik as the new PEO of Keluapalli earlier this month, he was in charge of Laudigaon panchayat.
Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M said Samir was the custodian of cheque books, cash books, and other financial documents of Keluapalli since 2019 and he was responsible for managing the funds of the panchayat with the sarpanch’s approval. However, last year, he reportedly forged the sarpanch’s signature to embezzle funds from a joint account in Union Bank’s Tulu branch.
Investigation further revealed that Samir also fabricated passbooks which he handed over to the current PEO. “He forged passbooks to conceal the fraud during 2023-24 annual audit and used the funds, meant for development works in the panchayat, for his personal use,” the SP said.
The fraud came to light when Susanta visited the bank around two days back and discovered that the panchayat’s account was empty. Upon cross-verifying with the passbook given by Samir, he noticed discrepancies and reported the matter to the BDO.
Samir was arrested following the BDO’s complaint and he reportedly confessed to his crime. “However, he has not yet disclosed where the money was kept or invested. Police have seized an iPhone, android phone and an ATM card from him. Details of the fraud will be verified when the bank reopens on Tuesday,” the SP said. Further investigation is underway.