2 OTDC staff held for Rs 17.47 lakh fraud

BHUBANESWAR: City police arrested two persons for allegedly embezzling Rs 17.47 lakh of Nimantran, a flagship restaurant of the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) Limited, in the State Capital. OTDC’s divisional manager (finance) lodged a complaint in this connection at Saheed Nagar police station on Tuesday. The complainant accused manager in-charge Raja Ardhendu Sekhar Mohanty and assistant manager (accounts) Sunil Kumar Ghadei of misappropriating Nimantran restaurant’s money.

Acting on the complaint, the police arrested Mohanty and Ghadei on Wednesday. During investigation, the accused revealed that they did not deposit the cash obtained through the business made by Nimantran restaurant here.

Ghadei told the investigators that he used the money for online gambling. He reportedly lost Rs 10 lakh in online gambling. The remaining Rs 7 lakh was misappropriated by Mohanty. The police have not seized any money from the two persons.

The police said Mohanty is a regular employee of OTDC and Ghadei is a contractual staff. Mohanty told the investigators that he has spent the total embezzled amount. OTDC’s officials came to know about the misappropriation of money, which took place between January and June this year, while carrying out the account verification recently. 

“A case has been registered in this connection under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. A thorough investigation has been launched and the statements of the bank accounts of the accused persons will be checked as part of our probe,” ACP Sanjeev Satpathy told TNIE.

To promote and popularise Odia cuisine, OTDC had launched Nimantran chain of restaurants in Bhubaneswar and Puri in the first phase. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated Nimantran here on September 3 last year on the occasion of the 42nd foundation day of OTDC.