Crime / Odisha Vigilance Arrests Ex-Tirtol Block Officials in Rs3 Crore Fraud Case

Bhubaneswar, Aug 13: Odisha Vigilance arrested two former government officials of Tirtol Block Office in Jagatsinghpur district for allegedly embezzling over Rs3 crore of government funds through fraudulent salary bills and tampered registers, officials said on Thursday.

The accused are Bhanja Kishore Behera, Ex-SRA of Tirtol Block (later posted at Naugaon Tahasil), and Pradipta Kumar Mallik, Ex-PEO of Tirtol Block (retired). They were arrested following an extensive probe into financial irregularities spanning 2011–12 to 2021–22.

According to the official sources, Behera, Mallik, and Late Rajdeep Hansda, Ex-AEE of Tirtol Block, systematically misappropriated funds by fabricating salary registers and disbursal documents. They allegedly prepared inflated salary bills far beyond sanctioned allocations and diverted the excess amounts directly into their personal savings accounts.

In this connection, the Cuttack Vigilance PS registered a case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 and relevant sections of the IPC, including 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 467–471 (forgery and use of forged documents).
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Officials said, fraud was executed over a decade, with meticulous manipulation of government records to conceal the embezzlement. The total misappropriated amount was calculated at Rs3,02,95,000.

Both Behera and Mallik were produced before the Court of the Special Judge, Vigilance, Cuttack today. Vigilance sources confirmed that further investigation is underway to trace additional assets and financial transactions linked to the accused.

The arrests mark one of the biggest financial fraud crackdowns in Odisha’s block-level administration in recent years, highlighting systemic vulnerabilities in salary disbursal mechanisms and the need for tighter monitoring of government accounts.