Odishatv Bureau
Bolangir: Two main accused allegedly involved in the Bolangir  Sarva Shiksha Abhijan (SSA) scam who were on the run for three months have surrendered at Town Police Station at around 10.45 am on Friday. Both the accused, Jethu Sahu and Doctor Sahu, who had allegedly siphoned off Rs 5 crore government money by forging signature of Bolangir SSA officials, had escaped the state crime branch.
 
Jethu and Doctor, who were working as accountant and cashier respectively in SSA department of Bolangir, had been withdrawing government money from SSA account by forging signature of five former district project coordinators (DPC) since 2007.
 
The duo had opened an account in Allahabad Bank (Balangir town branch), where they had been depositing the returned cheques (granted to the schools under SSA for different development activities but returned) and withdrawing the cash using the forged signature of DPC.
 
The matter came to fore after the officials verified and found that no account had been opened at Allahabad Bank officially with the authentic signature of the DPC.
 
After the big amount of misappropriation came to light, DPC Susant Chopdar, had lodged a complaint at Bolangir Town police on May 9, 2013.
An administrative inquiry was conducted during which Collector Deboraj Mishra had directed the SSA officials not to make any transactions with Allhabad Bank as the role of bank employees could not be overruled.
 
Later, the Collector had requested the State government for a crime branch probe into the whole episode.
 
 
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