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Bokaro ASI held for ₹1.11 crore illegal withdrawals; CID takes over Chaibasa treasury scam case
Earlier, the SIT had also arrested home guard Satish Kumar Singh posted in the account section of the Bokaro SP office in connection with illegal withdrawals of ₹1.06 crore on April 27 and had frozen ₹43 lakh in his bank account.
The nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Jharkhand CID, led by Inspector General (IG, Human Rights), Pankaj Kamboj, has arrested an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) posted at the Bokaro Superintendent of Police (SP) office. The arrest is linked to the illegal withdrawal of ₹1.11 crore from the Bokaro treasury under the police salary head. Officials said the SIT has also taken over the investigation into a separate case involving an illegal withdrawal of ₹42 lakh from the Chaibasa treasury under the same head.
“ASI Ashok Bhandari has been arrested in connection with illegal withdrawals amounting to ₹1.11 crore from the Bokaro treasury on account of TA bills since 2020. We have also taken over a separate case involving illegal withdrawals of ₹26.21 lakh from the Chaibasa treasury and registered a fresh FIR against four accused, including a police personnel,” said Pankaj Kamboj, IG (HR) and head of the SIT, on Thursday.
“Bhandari, posted in the account section of the Bokaro SP office, in connivance and cooperation withdrew over ₹ 1.11 crore illegally on account of TA bills from the Bokaro treasury. Besides, ₹50 lakh in his bank account was transferred from the account of another arrested main accused accountant Kaushal Kumar Pandey,” a senior CID officer said.
Earlier, the SIT had also arrested home guard Satish Kumar Singh posted in the account section of the Bokaro SP office in connection with illegal withdrawals of ₹1.06 crore on April 27 and had frozen ₹43 lakh in his bank account.
Meanwhile, the SIT has so far traced ₹26.21 lakh illegal withdrawals through four branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) allegedly by Dev Narayan Murmu, constable posted in the account section of the Chaibasa SP office. He was arrested on April 27 along with his two relatives Sarkar Hembram and Arun Kumar Munda and friend Gokul Chandra Mardi.
Chaibasa treasury officer Sumit Kumar has lodged an FIR against Murmu and three other accused in the Chaibasa Mufassil PS on April 26.
“Our investigation has so far traced ₹26.21 lakh illegal withdrawals by Murmu in connivance with the three other arrested accused by fudging computer data. He withdrew this amount by using four separate accounts in SBI Potka branch, SBI Chaibasa branch SBI Bahalda (Mayurbhanj) branch and SBI Tagore Hill (Morhabadi) branch between 2017 and 2025,” the CID officer added.
Meanwhile, principal accountant general’s audit report has unearthed illegal withdrawals of another ₹2.70 crore from the Bokaro treasury through Bokaro SP’s bank account (10854154749) without any phone number and OTP.
“Mobile number and OTP are mandatory for withdrawal from Kuber portal but ₹2.70 crore was withdrawn through 51 transactions between May 2017 and 2025 without any mobile number and OTP. Large scale fudging of master data of staff has also been found under which PAN numbers of 2890 were changed,” the report has stated.
“A total of ₹15.98 crore was withdrawn from the Bokaro treasury through 271 dubious and suspicious transactions since 2017. Out of this, ₹ 9.79 crore was withdrawn in the name of arrested main accused accountant Kaushal Kumar Pandey on mobile number 7543915302 and ₹3.48 crore was withdrawn through Sankalp B’s mobile number 9431706419,” another official said.
