Fake gratuity, leave bills used to eat up Rs 9.24 crore Odisha govt funds

Bhubaneswar, Sep 26 (UNI) Odisha Vigilance has uncovered a Rs 9.24-crore government fund embezzlement allegedly carried out by generating fake sanction orders and bills and routing the money through 77 bank accounts of 48 people, including relatives and associates of two employees of the R&B Division-I office here. The fraud allegedly took place between 2022-23 and 2025-26, when Section Officer Banalata Mohanty and Junior Assistant Bibhudutta Nayak, both attached to the Establishment Section of the Superintending Engineer, R&B Division-I, allegedly conspired with others to create fraudulent bills. According to Vigilance, the fake bills were raised in the names of retired…