An accountant and a peon of Health Directorate were arrested by City Police on Thursday for bungling ` 40 lakh by stealing leaves from the office cheque books.
The two used to siphon off the cash to the account of a medicine store owner of Berhampur. The account has been frozen.
According to IIC of Capital Police Station Asim Panda, accountant Antaryami Sahu along with peon Manoj Jena used to take away leaves from cheque books. Over a period of two months, they had misappropriated at least six leaves and encashed four of them for `10 lakh each.
The cash used to be parked in the account of Manoj Mohapatra, a friend of Jena. When the Directorate came across the missing cheques, it looked for bank statements which reflected bungling of ` 40 lakh. Following this, a complaint was lodged with Capital Police. “We verified the cheques and have frozen the account of Mohapatra who has been arrested,” Panda said.