Odisha: Two held for embezzling Rs 5 crore by hacking NHM portal

Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch has arrested two persons over their alleged involvement in embezzling around Rs 5 crore government fund by hacking the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) of National Health Mission (NHM).

The accused have been identified as Rajkishore Nayak of Bhawanipatna and Ananta Charan Pradhan of Pipili. They were arrested under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120 (B) of the IPC and Section 66 (C) & (D) of IT Act. The duo was forwarded to the Court of SDJM, Sonepur.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by CDMO, Sonepur. As per the FIR, an amount of Rs 5,01,50,000 was unauthorisedly diverted from the account of Zilla Swasthya Samiti, National Health Mission (ZSS, NHM) Sonepur on 07.04.2021 by hacking the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) of the National Health Mission.

During investigation, it was ascertained that Rajkishore Nayak previously served as an accountant on temporary basis in NHM, Sonepur and he left the job on 24.12.2020. Thereafter, he was appointed temporarily as an accountant in Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (​SVNIRTAR), Olatpur.

In March this year, Nayak entered into a criminal conspiracy with Ananta Charan Pradhan and others, and generated an e-cheque amounting to Rs 5,01,50,000 by unauthorisedly hacking the portal of NHM system i.e. PFMS. They manufactured duplicate seal of ADMO and CDMO, Sonepur, put the same on the e-cheque and placed the cheque at SBI, Sonepur for clearance. On 07.04.2021, the amount was diverted to the account of M/s NATURALS.

The mobile phone used for manufacturing the e-cheque has been seized along with other incriminating articles. Out of the siphoned amount, around Rs 3.30 crore has been freezed during the investigation, so far.

Earlier, Samir Kumar Pati, an employee of M/s NATURALS, was arrested in this connection.