SAMBALPUR: Two persons including a 65-year-old retired assistant sub-inspector (ASI) have been arrested for embezzling government funds to the tune of Rs 3.67 crore from the Excise department, police said on Friday.
The accused are Sandeep Kumar Pattnaik (38), a suspended junior assistant, and Sarat Chandra Behera, a retired ASI of the Excise department. Another accused Achyuta Dehury, also a retired ASI, is absconding.
Briefing mediapersons here, Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo said the accused duo was arrested on basis of a report filed by the deputy commissioner of excise after audit authorities flagged financial discrepancies in departmental accounts last month.
He said preliminary investigation revealed that unauthorised sanction orders were generated through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) portal in the name of Dehury who retired in 2014. These fabricated sanctions allegedly enabled the illegal withdrawal of funds under the guise of pension and salary arrears, he said. Behera had retired more recently in 2022.
The SP said as Dehury had not received his pension for several years and was concerned about the delay, Behera connected him with Pattnaik who assured him of facilitating the process. Being a junior assistant in the department, Pattnaik had access to the IFMS system and allegedly misused it to generate fraudulent sanction orders. He siphoned off funds from various heads and credited them to Dehury’s account after gaining his trust, with the money subsequently shared among them in varying proportions, said Bhamoo.
The fraudulent withdrawals continued from November 2022 to October 2025, with some funds later routed to Behera’s account to avoid suspicion. The irregularities came to light during an audit, following which a case was registered in Ainthapali police station on March 9.
Police said that key financial records including bill registers and cash books were also manipulated to conceal the irregularities. Subsequent bank analysis pointed to a pattern of suspicious high-value transactions, frequent cash withdrawals, and fund transfers which went up to the tune of Rs 3.67 crore.
While Pattnaik was arrested on March 28, Behera was apprehended on March 31. “During the course of investigation, cash amounting to Rs 23.46 lakh was seized from their possession. Additionally, Rs 14 lakh deposited in a drawing and disbursing officer (DDO) account and Rs 30 lakh in two separate bank accounts linked to Dehury have been frozen. We will also summon the DDO to ascertain if he was involved in the fraud,” Bhamoo said.
The arrested duo was produced in court on the day. Efforts are underway to nab the third accused who is on the run, police said.