Man dupes administration of Rs. 17 lakh

PARADIP: A resident of Nuagaon panchayat has absconded after allegedly misappropriating around  Rs. 17 lakh by tampering with a cheque issued towards compensation for fruit-bearing trees lost during acquisition of land for the Posco project.  The accused, identified as Gadadhar Swain is a member of the Dandabhiman Jew Gramya Forest Committee.Sources said Swain was entitled to Rs. 17,640 as compensation. In the cheque issued from the office of special land acquisition officer, the amount was erroneously written as seventeen lakh six hundred and forty, in words. In figures, however, the amount was retained as Rs. 17,640. In a bid to strike gold, Swain tampered with the amount in figures and added two zeroes to make it Rs. 17,00,640. Swain then deposited the cheque at the Balitutha branch of the UCO bank where he had an account.The error came to light during verification of the vouchers, payment slips and official documents after a discrepancy of Rs.  17 lakh was detected. The officials then requested Swain to return the amount in excess of the rightful compensation.  Swain had then denied receiving the excess amount following which the Special Land Acquisition Officer Nrusingh Swain had lodged an FIR with the Kujang police. Meanwhile, Swain absconded after withdrawing Rs. 8 lakh from UCO bank. He might have liaised with a UCO bank employee to encash the cheque, police suspects. Kujang police IIC Gupteswar Bhoi said the UCO bank account has been frozen. In another incident, Kujang tehsildar Basudev Pradhan served notices to four persons for allegedly duping the administration of Rs. 44 lakh towards compensation for prawn gheries by furnishing forged documents. The fraud came to light after the owner of the gheries, Purusottam Pradhan of Mathshai village urged the Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Central Range, to probe the matter.