Bhubaneswar: Odisha Vigilance on Sunday arrested Sujit Kumar Jena, Senior Clerk at the office of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Dhenkanal, and his two accomplices Soumya Ranjan Behera (Staffer) and Rashmi Ranjan Swain in connection with a decade-long financial fraud of Rs 65,90,773.Following a comprehensive verification of transactions from 2016 to 2026, Vigilance unearthed a systematic pattern of fraud. Investigation revealed that Jena, exploiting his administrative access, siphoned off public funds into private accounts of himself, his family members and co-conspirators.Salaries meant for dismissed and absconding employees, retiring employees’ arrear bills, provisional pensions, government allocations for establishment pay bills, contingency expenses, staff arrear salaries and fraudulent Travelling Allowance (TA) claims were unlawfully diverted.Of the total amount, Rs 8,72,520 was transferred to the bank account of Jena’s mother, Rs 10,48,866 to Soumya Ranjan Behera, staff member of Elephant Squad, Sadar Range, and Rs 8,86,193 to close associate Rashmi Ranjan Swain.After the crime was exposed, the trio evaded arrest for an extended period. Vigilance tracked them through technical intelligence and mobile location monitoring and apprehended them.In this connection, Vigilance has registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and relevant sections of BNS. The three accused are being forwarded to the Court of Special Judge, Vigilance, Dhenkanal today.Further probe is on to ascertain the role of others in the misappropriation.
October 18, 2026
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