Three more Odisha government employees have been arrested in connection with the alleged misappropriation of around Rs 9.24 crore in public funds in Bhubaneswar, taking the total number of people apprehended in the case to nine, the Odisha Vigilance Department said on Saturday.
The latest arrests involve a senior accountant at the district treasury office in Bhubaneswar, a senior assistant at the Puri Road and Building Division of the Works Department, and a peon working at the Bhubaneswar Road and Building Division, according to the anti-corruption agency.
The case relates to the alleged misappropriation of public money in the office of the Superintending Engineer, Road and Building Division-I, Bhubaneswar. The Works Department is responsible for public construction and road-related administration, making the alleged diversion of funds a matter involving both financial control and the management of infrastructure-linked government expenditure.
Odisha Vigilance described the amount involved as around Rs 9.24 crore. The agency’s account, as reported by Odisha Post, does not provide details of the specific transactions, projects, payment instruments or internal procedures through which the alleged misappropriation took place. Those details remain part of the continuing investigation.
The three employees arrested in the latest action were posted across offices involved in treasury and Works Department functions. Their roles indicate that the investigation has extended beyond a single office to personnel connected with the processing, administration or support of government financial and departmental operations, although the material supplied does not specify the precise allegations against each individual.
Six other accused people were arrested on September 27 and remanded to jail custody, the report said. The latest arrests raise the total number of apprehended persons in the case to nine. The source does not identify all the accused or state whether the investigation has resulted in any recovery of the allegedly misappropriated funds.
The alleged fraud concerns public funds assigned to a government engineering and works establishment in Bhubaneswar. Such offices typically operate within layers of budgeting, treasury processing, approvals and record-keeping; however, the Vigilance Department has not publicly detailed in the supplied report which control or verification process is alleged to have failed in this case.
The investigation is continuing, according to the Odisha Vigilance Department. Further proceedings are expected to establish the individual roles of the accused, the flow of the funds and the total financial impact of the alleged misappropriation.
