Odisha teacher missing case: Accused Gobinda handled 'Mo School' projects, set up junior college

BHUBANESWAR: Gobinda Sahu, prime suspect in Mamita Meher missing case, did not just set up the Sunshine English Medium School but was also handling lakhs of rupees that were sanctioned under State government’s Mo School Abhiyan for the Government High School in Mahaling village of Kalahandi.

A contractor himself, he was the incumbent president of the Mahalinga High School Alumni Association and was supervising project works taken up under Mo School Abhijan for the institution. Along with other members of the School Management and Developments Committee (SMDC) and School Management Committee (SMC), Gobinda was directly supervising works like construction of boundary wall, new building, school gate, smart classrooms and improvement of playground of Mahaling High School.

​ALSO READ | Odisha teacher kidnapping case: Charred body of suspected victim found; key accused held

And for construction purpose, he had reportedly engaged JCB and tractor for the projects, school sources said. The school has withdrawn Rs 74 lakh in two phases, 37 lakh in each, from the funds available with it for implementation of its development projects under Mo School Abhiyan. The school received Rs 57.588 lakh as contribution from alumni and other donors and has been assured a grant of Rs 1.01 crore from the State government under Mo School programme for development works, sources said.

Around Rs 45 lakh received by the school under transformation of High School under 5T initiative is also pending to be utilised. Sources said school will reopen on October 21 and the meeting of the SMDC and SMC will be held on October 26 and 27 after which it will be decided if Gobinda will continue as the president of the alumni association. Apparently, he was also one of the founding members of a private unaided junior college (or higher secondary school) named Anchalika Mahavidyalaya.

​ALSO READ | Opposition seeks removal of Odisha minister for being 'close to' accused in teacher kidnapping case

Both the college - which offers education in Plus II - and the Sunshine school are located within the same campus at Mahaling in Golamunda block. While the school was set up by Sahu in 2015-16, the co-educational college was established in 2010. Along with 14 others of the area, who come from different walks of life, Gobinda started the college with funds from Western Odisha Development Council (WODC), MPLAD and MLA LAD besides private donations.

“These 15 persons including Gobinda have set up Anchalika Mahavidyalaya Mahaling committee which was managing the day-to-day affairs of the college, generating funds and implementing infrastructure work in the institution”, said sources in the college. Being a contractor, Gobinda had also constructed a large building on the campus for housing the Plus III college which was being planned to be started soon. “He had used WODC, MPLAD and MLA LAD funds for constructing this new building”, said a committee member.

The government had rejected the grant-in-aid proposal of the college which the committee had filed in 2015. Meanwhile, the committee members on Tuesday conducted a meeting of guardians of college students and informed them that Gobinda was removed from the committee following his arrest on the day. Secretary of the committee Kiran Singh refused to comment on the issue.