Samagra Shiksha fraud: 3 more arrested from Bengal, Delhi

Panaji: Porvorim police have arrested three more people from West Bengal and Delhi in the Goa Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan fraud. Porvorim PI Rahul Parab said that after the arrests of two accused earlier last month, two teams of two Porvorim police personnel each proceeded to New Delhi and West Bengal. He said the first team nabbed account holder Sumanta Mondal, 40, from Nazirpur, Nadia, West Bengal. Mondal is being brought to Goa on transit remand from a Tehatta court.After the arrest, it came to light that two accused persons have fled to Delhi. Accordingly, with assistance of Delhi police, they were traced in the Paharganj area. The accused have been identified Alamin Mondal, 35, of Nadia, West Bengal, and Bidyadhar Mallick, 52, of Howrah, West Bengal. They have been placed under arrest, and police custody of six days has been obtained. “Investigation has revealed that the two accused had procured bank details, SIM cards, ATM cards of account holders, and supplied them further to their co-accused, who are also being present tracked. In return, the arrested accused received money from time to time,” said Parab.He said the present case involves a big racket of many accused persons and is being investigated in detail.Initially, a man from West Bengal was found to have siphoned off Rs 4.6 crore from the bank account of Goa Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (GSSA). These funds were intended for the implementation of school education schemes.GSSA holds a savings account in the Porvorim branch of a nationalised bank in the name of ‘Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Society’. The misappropriation came to light in April, when an auditor of a private bank pointed out the transactions. Immediately, the bank manager of the private bank approached the GSSA office and highlighted the transactions. When the officials of GSSA approached the nationalised bank, they realised that since 2020, there has been no update of the mobile number despite repeated requests to the bank. It was also found that the new cheque book issued by the nationalised bank to the accused was not registered with the bank.All the bank accounts involved have been frozen, and the trail of money has been also traced by police.