BHUBANESWAR: As investigation into embezzlement of death benefits to construction workers in Rayagada district drags its feet two weeks after the first information report (FIR) was filed, sensational tricks adopted to swindle welfare fund meant for labourers, most of whom were tribals, have come to fore.
According to the FIR, which has been accessed by the TNIE, former Rayagada district labour officer (DLO) Jasmine Subhadarshini Sahu and her associates are accused of using dubious methods to swindle government funds meant for families of hundreds of deceased construction workers under Nirman Shramik Kalyan Yojana of the state government.
From forging documents to using non-existing mobile phone numbers as contact details; using bank accounts to shift funds to generating fake death certificates, a number of players were co-opted into the grand scam. Sahu apart, her husband Raghunanda J too, has been named in the FIR.
The FIR claimed the massive fraud spanned between 2020 and 2024 as district authorities remained blissfully unaware while construction workers’ funds were being bungled systematically.
When mobile phone number of a deceased construction worker Harihar Sabar was contacted during enquiry, it was found to have been registered in the name of a woman hailing from Tamil Nadu. Verification showed Chandrapur community health centre (CHC) in Rayagada had issued Sabar’s death certificate twice on November 30, 2023 and then on February 12, 2024 by mentioning the dates of his death as November 1, 2023 and February 6, 2024 respectively.
Earlier in January, as many as 81 construction workers’ registration cards were issued under Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. Soon, as many as 33 beneficiaries were reported dead. Over the next two months, their legal heirs and third parties applied and received the benefits. Death benefits of 31 deceased workers were found transferred to the bank account of Balaram Kusulia, a trade union leader, the FIR said.
There were at least seven cases in which the contact mobile phone numbers of the deceased were reported as either 1111111111 or 0000000000 which were, of course, bogus in nature. In one instance, the benefit meant for construction workers Gorudhan Hial and Araun Dangari was transferred into the bank account of Dibakar Hial. The application mentioned Dibakar as the son of Hial and Dangari. However, the building and other construction (BoC) cards of Hial and Dangari revealed they were not husband and wife.
Similarly, verification revealed funeral and death benefits of at least six construction workers were availed without the knowledge of the actual nominees. At least 20 death cases were verified on a single mobile phone number issued in the name of Kusulia, a member of Odisha Forestwood Agriculture and Building Construction Workers Union. In one case, funeral and death benefits of a construction worker named Laxmi Majhi were released despite she being alive.
In his FIR, district labour officer Gopal Krushna Mangaraj expressed apprehension that HDFC Bank account of a company in which Sahu’s husband is a director might have been used by the couple to carry out several illegal transactions, and requested the police to carry out a detailed investigation into the scam.
The state Labour directorate said all the necessary steps including placing Sahu under suspension after the irregularities surfaced have been taken. “We have written to the economic offences wing (EOW) requesting it to investigate the matter. Besides, a request will also be sent to the vigilance to conduct an inquiry,” said Labour Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange.
However, a senior EOW officer said no requisition for taking over probe into the scam has yet been received. The huge corruption surfaced in June and the FIR was lodged with Rayagada Town police on August 3.