Vigilance authorities in Odisha have arrested two ex-employees of Mayurbhanj Central Cooperative Bank for allegedly diverting over ₹64 lakh through fictitious accounts, part of a wider crackdown on financial irregularities in the state’s cooperative banking sector.
Odisha Vigilance has arrested two former employees of Mayurbhanj Central Cooperative Bank’s Bahalda branch in connection with an alleged fraud involving ₹64,42,074, as investigators continue to examine a pattern of suspected abuse in the state’s cooperative banking network. The agency identified the accused as former manager Dichen Kumar Mishra and former employee Malay Kumar Dutta, both of whom were produced before the Special Judge, Vigilance, in Baripada on Thursday.
According to the Vigilance investigation, the alleged diversion took place between 2019 and 2024, when the pair, along with three other bank staff, are said to have created fictitious Loan Against Term Deposit accounts against 24 genuine fixed deposits held by customers. Those accounts were allegedly opened without the depositors’ knowledge or consent, allowing money to be withdrawn and misappropriated.
Balasore Vigilance Police Station has registered the case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, including charges related to criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. The latest arrests come as Odisha Vigilance has stepped up action against financial irregularities in cooperative institutions across the state, including a May case in Angul in which a bank staffer was accused of misappropriating more than ₹33 lakh in government funds.
The Mayurbhanj case also follows another high-value cooperative bank fraud in Berhampur, where two officials were arrested in January over an alleged ₹1.46 crore loan scam. Odisha Vigilance’s recent performance report shows the scale of its wider enforcement drive, with 220 arrests made in a recent period, including public servants across multiple services and private individuals.
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