Bokaro treasury fraud: Jharkhand CID traces ₹10 cr money trail, freezes ₹1.8 crore, arrests 3

The Jharkhand CID traced a ₹10 crore money trail related to the Bokaro treasury scam, froze two fixed deposits of ₹1.8 crore and ₹18 lakh, and arrested two police personnel in addition to Bokaro police accountant Kaushal Kumar Pandey. ASI Ashok Kumar Bhandari and Home Guard jawan Satish Kumar were named as the arrested personnel. During a raid on Bhandari’s house, important documents related to ill-gotten properties were seized. Bhandari’s properties include 4.08 decimals of land in Telidih, Bokaro, a three-storey luxurious house on that land, and another 4.98 decimals of land. The CID lodged an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and IT Act, and the three persons were sent to judicial custody. Pandey was arrested for allegedly withdrawing more than ₹6 crore from the treasury’s salary disbursement account in the names of Ram Naresh Singh, Upendra Singh, S Kumar, and others, following an FIR by Bokaro treasury officer Gulab Chand Oraon at Bokaro Steel City police station.

Police arrested four persons including prime accused Devnarayan Murmu, a constable accountant, 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.

An FIR was registered against a police constable for alleged involvement in the embezzlement of ₹27 lakh from the West Singhbhum district treasury.

Two more persons, Kajal Kumari and Khusboo Kumari, wives of two of the arrested individuals, were arrested in connection with the case.

Three persons, Shambhu Kumar, Rajnish Singh and Dhirendra Singh, employed in the police department's accounts branch, were arrested in the Hazaribag district for allegedly embezzling ₹15.41 crore from two bank accounts over the past eight years.