The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday arrested a sub-inspector (SI) posted at the accounts section of the office of Bokaro Superintendent of Police (SP) for his alleged involvement in illegal withdrawals from the Bokaro treasury.
The CID, in a press statement on Wednesday, identified the accused SI as Ashok Kumar Bhandari. According to the statement, Bhandari was associated with one of the previous arrestees, Kaushal Kumar Pandey. Approximately Rs 50 lakh was allegedly transferred from Pandey's account to Bhandari's account, and over Rs 1.11 crore was withdrawn from Bhandari's bank account with Kaushal's help since 2020. On Sunday, home guard Satish Kumar was also arrested in connection with the case.
In response to the state government's directive, the CID formed an eight-member special investigation team to probe the illegal withdrawals from the treasuries of Bokaro and Hazaribag.
In a separate development, the police arrested the prime accused in a fraudulent withdrawal case from the West Singhbhum treasury, along with three others, and sent them to judicial custody, an officer said on Wednesday.
Sub-divisional police officer (Sadar, Chaibasa) Bahaman Tutu told PTI that the accused were arrested on Tuesday and produced before a court after completion of legal formalities. During investigations, illegal withdrawal of over Rs 26 lakh from police department accounts through the Chaibasa treasury was confirmed, leading to the arrest of four persons. The prime accused, Devnarayan Murmu, a constable accountant, was arrested along with his relatives Arun Kumar Mardi and Sarkar Hembrom from Potka block in neighbouring East Singhbhum district, and his friend Gorachand Mardi from Mayurbhanj district in Odisha.
The officer said the investigation revealed that the accused manipulated departmental computer data for nearly nine years to divert government funds into their own accounts and those of associates. An FIR in the case was registered at Muffasil police station based on a statement by Chaibasa treasury officer Sumit Kumar Singh. According to the probe, Murmu had been working in the accounts branch of the Chaibasa SP office since 2016.
