Officer in-charge of Chintapalli Sub-Treasury and two employees of office of Additional District Medical and Health Officer, Paderu were arrested by the Visakhapatnam police in connection with alleged misappropriation of about Rs.5.4 crore.
Senior Accountant and STO in-charge of Chintapalli Sub-Treasury Kada Peda Appala Raju, Senior Assistant of RCD Hospital here, who had earlier worked as Senior Assistant in-charge of some PHCs in the Visakha Agency area and Senior Assistant at Addl. DHMO Office, Paderu Palla Sajeeva Rao were arrested after they surrendered to the police on Wednesday and Rs.11.20 lakh in cash, documents of houses and promissory notes with face-value of Rs.1.60 crore and two cars were seized.
The details of the case were explained by Superintendent of Police Koya Praveen, Deputy S.P. of Central Crime Station of District Police P.V. Krishna Varma and Additional SP (crime) N. Rajkumar at a press conference here on Thursday. A case was registered at the Chintapalli police station under Sections 409, 420, 468,471, 120 (b) and 109 read with Sec.34 of IPC, following a complaint lodged by Deputy Director of District Treasury M. Geetha Devi on November 27.
It was alleged that the accused secured budget in excess to the need from the Directorate of Public Health and Finance Ministy towards salaries and arrears of contract employees engaged at nine PHCs in the Agency. About Rs.3.60 crore were misappropriated during 2013-14 and investigation done so far revealed that Rs.1.70 crore was siphoned off during 2012-13.
There were 54 contract employees and the budget needed for them is Rs.1.20 crore but Rs.5 crore were drawn during 2013-14 and Rs.6 crore during Rs.2012-13. Fake bills were sent to Sub-treasury by the Addl. DMHO office and they were passed by the treasury and the accused revealed that the treasury, Additional DMHO office and PHC staff had shared the spoils at the ratio of 50 per cent, 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, Dr. Praveen said.
There was a suspicion why such high amounts were released by the Directorate and this was also being investigated, he added.
