KOCHI: The case related to the alleged misappropriation of the funds meant for flood relief activities turned murkier with officials receiving clues regarding the involvement of more persons in the fraud.
The Crime Branch team probing the case recorded the arrest of second accused B Mahesh, a resident of Civil Lane Road here, on Thursday.

With this, four persons have been arrested, with collectorate clerk Vishnu Prasad, local CPM leader N N Nithin and his wife Shintu George being the other three. Vishnu was arrested last week, while the other two were arrested on Wednesday.

Koulath Anwar, the wife of absconding third accused and ex-CPM leader Anwar M M, and Neethu Mahesh, Mahesh’s wife, have also been arraigned in the case. Sources with the probe team said at least three more persons would soon be arrested in the case.

The case pertains to the misappropriation of `12.94 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) by the accused persons after hatching up a conspiracy last year.

Vishnu, the first accused who is a clerk with CMDRF section at the collectorate was arrested after the police found he was involved in the misappropriation of `10.54 lakh from the relief fund to the Anwar’s bank account.

The officers said Vishnu shared with Mahesh the account numbers to which transfer of flood relief from the collector’s disaster management relief fund had failed.

The account numbers were then allegedly tampered with and `2.5 lakh each was transferred in two transactions to the Ayyanad Service Cooperative Bank account jointly held by Anwar and Koulath.

The probe revealed the names of 325 beneficiaries were duplicated during the allocation of flood relief fund in March last year. As a result, the additional fund in the treasury account was transferred to Anwar’s account.

A sum of `2.5 lakh was also transferred to the account of Shintu, wife of Nidhin, at Dena Bank, Kakkanad branch. The accused later withdrew the amount together.