Team Goemkarponn
RIBANDAR: The Goa Crime Branch has made a major breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into the misappropriation of ₹5.36 crore from the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), with the arrest of two key accused from West Bengal, including the alleged mastermind.
The latest arrests—Subhashis Sikdar and Mriganka Joarder—raise the total number of individuals held in connection with the case to seven.
The case, recently transferred from Porvorim police to the Crime Branch, has uncovered a sophisticated financial fraud. According to Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Rahul Gupta, Sikdar orchestrated the operation by siphoning off over ₹1.8 crore from SSA’s Bank of India account and also gained illegal access to a Bank of Baroda account, allegedly with the help of another accused, Alamin Mondal.
The fraud was carried out using forged cheques, and Sikdar was reportedly responsible for converting the stolen funds into bank credits under fake identities and mule accounts in a bid to obscure the money’s illegal origin.
Joarder, the second accused, is believed to have played a crucial role in routing and laundering the funds.
He managed a Bandhan Bank account registered under the name M/s Sonum Auto Sale, linked to Sumanta Mondal, which received ₹49.44 lakh of the diverted funds.
SP Gupta said Joarder’s involvement was key to disguising the financial trail and making the illicit transactions harder to trace.
The police have also seized mobile phones and SIM cards from both accused as part of their ongoing investigation.
Earlier, five others—Rabin Paul, Purnashish Sana, Alamin Mondal, Bidyadhar Mallick, and Sumanta Mondal—were arrested in connection with the same fraud.
The Crime Branch is continuing its investigation and pursuing leads to trace other individuals involved in the racket.
