The case involving the alleged diversion of funds from the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF), meant for distribution among the victims of the 2018 flood, turned murkier with the C-Branch probe team detecting an even bigger fraudulent diversion.
The probe team suspects that about ₹53 lakh out of ₹1 crore returned by beneficiaries, for various reasons, was diverted, and registered a second case in this regard. Vishnu Prasad, who served as clerk in the CMDRF section of the district collectorate and is the key accused in the first case, stands implicated in the second case as well. An internal inquiry report in this regard from the collectorate was handed over to the investigating team.
Fake receipts
It is learned that the funds remitted by the beneficiaries was siphoned off by fabricating fake receipts. Out of ₹1 crore remitted by beneficiaries, only ₹47 lakh was found to have reached the account concerned. The police suspect that the rest of the amount had been diverted fraudulently. The Additional District Magistrate had filed a petition in their regard in addition to another plaint for fabricating fake receipts.
Even the first case progressively got bigger with the estimated misappropriation rising from an initial ₹10.54 lakh to ₹27.73 lakh and the investigation into the case is still under way. Computer hard disks seized from the house and office of the first accused are being examined. It is suspected that funds were diverted by manipulating the beneficiary list and the Bill Information Management System date of failed transactions in the treasury account.
Two granted bail
The Vigilance Special Court on Wednesday allowed statutory bail to two accused persons in the relief fund misappropriation case. Madhu, the second accused, and Nidhin, the sixth accused were granted the bail on the day. The court had granted bail to Vishnu, the first accused on Tuesday.
