The chief minister’s special vigilance cell (CMSCV) on Thursday arrested former Additional Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD), Viswanath Bhattacharjee in Guwahati in a case related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds of Rs 60 lakh by submitting fake bills.
Official sources said a total of Rs 60 lakh was withdrawn in the PWD’s Tengakhat rural road subdivision in Dibrugarh district by submitting fake demand proposals and bills.
A CMSCV official said Bhattacharjee has been arrested after preliminary investigation confirmed his direct involvement in the case.
Earlier, seven officials of the PWD were arrested in connection with the case.
Vijay Kumar Singh, 49, then assistant executive engineer of the Tengakhat rural road subdivision in Dibrugarh district and Dimbeswar Kalita, 53, then senior assistant of the PWD’s budget branch in the state secretariat were arrested by the cell in June this year.
They were arrested in connection with SVC (case number 6/2017), registered under Sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempt to commit offences punishable with life) of the IPC and Sections 13 (2) and 15 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The sleuths the SMSVC also arrested former Executive Engineer Bhabesh Haloi and Junior Engineers Keshav Sonowal and Subhas Phukan of Dibrugarh PWD in September this year in connection with the case.
In a separate incident, the sleuths of CM’s special vigilance cell arrested Bank of Boroda official Gautam Kr Das in Guwahati in connection with a case relating to misappropriation of fund of Rs 1.39 crore.
Das served as Branch Manager at the Hailakandi branch of Bank of Boroda from 2014 to 2016.
An official said the funds were embezzled by forging Kishan Credit Card.
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