JEYPORE: The Vigilance on Thursday arrested two more persons for their alleged involvement in misappropriation of over Rs 1.08 crore from the Malkangiri branch of Koraput Central Co-operative (KCC) bank.
The accused are Sushree Nibedita Tarai (28) of Jagatsinghpur and her live-in partner Nrusingh Prasad Khamari (30) of Khurda. The duo was arrested from Bhubaneswar two days after manager of KCC bank’s Malkangiri branch Sudhansu Khora was arrested on charges of fund misappropriation.
Vigilance officials said the money trail revealed that Khora had transferred around Rs 63 lakh of the misappropriated government funds to Tarai and Khamari as part of a conspiracy to evade detection.
Preliminary investigation indicated that Khora came in contact with Tarai through Facebook and the two reportedly hatched a plan to siphon off bank funds. Khamari was in a live-in relationship with Tarai for several years, they said.
Officials suspect the duo to be part of a larger organised fraud network operating across multiple districts and outside the state. During interrogation, they reportedly found links to several other cheating cases. A fraud case involving around Rs 14 lakh had earlier been registered against Khamari by the Bengaluru police.
Vigilance teams verified 25 bank accounts linked to the accused duo across different banks. Besides, 12 stock trading accounts operated by them are being examined to trace the movement of funds and possible investments made using the embezzled money.
During searches at multiple locations in Bhubaneswar and Khurda, officials seized 33 mobile phones of which 27 were found damaged, reportedly to destroy evidence. A computer, tablet, jewellery suspected to have been purchased using the misappropriated money, a drone and several high-end cameras were also recovered.
Vigilance SP Rabindra Kumar Panda said the accused duo would be brought to Jeypore and produced in court on Friday. Further investigation into the money trail and possible involvement of others is underway.