Bhubaneswar, May 7 (IANS) The Odisha Vigilance on Thursday arrested a couple for their alleged involvement in a fraud case linked to the embezzlement of government funds amounting to more than Rs 1.08 crore.

The accused fraudster couple has been identified as Sushree Nibedita Tarai and her live-in partner, Nrusingh Prasad Khamari. The Vigilance sources revealed that Khamari has reportedly been in a live-in relationship with Sushree Tarai for a long time.

It is pertinent to mention here that the anti-corruption sleuths had earlier arrested Sudhansu Khora, Branch Manager of Koraput Central Co-Operative (KCC) Bank at Malkangiri, in connection with the case on May 5. He is currently under police remand for further investigation into the case.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Vigilance department informed that the accused Khora came into contact with Sushree Tarai through Facebook. Later, the trio allegedly hatched a plan to siphon off bank funds.

The department revealed that the money trail investigation so far revealed that Khora had transferred nearly Rs 63 lakh of the misappropriated amount to his accomplice, Sushree Nibedita Tarai and Nrusingh Prasad Khamari as part of a conspiracy to avoid detection.

The department further noted that separate parallel investigations and interrogation of the fraudster duo, Khamari and Sushree Tarai, revealed that the duo were professional racketeers and may have cheated a number of persons and committed several such frauds.

“A case appears to have been registered in the Bangalore Police Commissionerate for a fraud of Rs 14 lakh committed by Khamari. Also, another fraud of Rs 30 lakh appears to have been committed by them in Jagatsinghpur. Similarly, frauds by the duo in Baripada, Paradip and Bhubaneswar are likely,” stated Vigilance in its press statement.

The department also added that so far, 25 bank accounts of the duo in different banks are being scrutinised by the finance and banking experts of Vigilance.

“Also, 12 Stock trading accounts opened by them are under scrutiny to ascertain the money trail and other frauds. During their house searches in Bhubaneswar and Khordha, 33 mobile phones (of which 27 were damaged after specific crimes to destroy evidence), desktop, tablet, jewellery purchased from the misappropriated money, a drone, high-end cameras, etc., have been recovered and seized,” said the Vigilance department.

The department suspects that both the accused appear to have been running a crime syndicate to intentionally enrich themselves through cheating others, and the matter is currently under investigation.

–IANS

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