A man was arrested after allegedly squandering away ₹50 lakh taken from his girlfriend on online gambling in Odisha.
Bikash Kumar who hails from Jharkhand was reportedly in relationship with Payal Mohapatra, who was working as accountant assistant in the office of General Manager (Accountant) in a city-based private university.
Ms. Mohapatra was in charge of depositing admission and tuition fees submitted by students in university bank account.
“Instead of depositing the fees in the university account, she used to divert a portion into her own account. It had been going on a regular basis. Probably, the university’s multilevel verification process had some inherent fallacies, authorities failed to detect swindling of money initially,” said Rajat Roy, Assistant Commissioner of Police of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate, on Tuesday.
Mr. Roy said, “when university authorities suspected that something was amiss, they questioned everyone in account section. The woman confessed to her wrong-doing. The accountant was arrested on April 29.”
When questioned further, the woman admitted that she used to transfer different amounts at regular intervals to account of Mr. Kumar, using Unified Payment Interface (UPI). A total ₹97 lakh was siphoned off by the woman.
The woman told investigators that she transferred the money only when the man said his father was not keeping well and he needed money to treat him.
“Preliminary investigation says the woman, his boyfriend and other relatives had gone to different places on leisure trips. The man has been brought to Bhubaneswar on a transit remand from Jharkhand. He admitted to have lost ₹50 lakh in online gambling,” said Mr. Roy.
The city police said both the woman and his boyfriend would be taken on five days of police remand each and they would be questioned as to how the remaining ₹47 lakhs were spent,” said the ACP said.
