Two officials held for misusing funds

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance department on Thursday arrested two government officials in separate cases of alleged misappropriation of funds, an official statement said. The arrested officials have been identified as Chintamani Mallick, former secretary of Juba Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) under Belpada block in Balangir district, and Ashis Naik, then forester in Athagada forest division, currently posted at the office of the DFO, Kataka, it said.

Mallick was arrested for allegedly misappropriating government funds amounting to over Rs 14.22 lakh during the financial years 2016-17, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, the department said. The probe found discrepancies including unrecorded seed sale proceeds, omission of such proceeds from official books of accounts, deliberate recording of suppressed closing balances in the day book and showing fictitious bank deposits to cover shortages and excess withdrawals from savings bank accounts, it said.

Naik allegedly misappropriated Rs 7.41 lakh by preparing and submitting fake and inflated bills under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme during the financial year 2025-26, the department said.

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