In a major breach of financial protocol, the prime accused in the ₹5 crore fraud case involving Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds managed to change the registered mobile number linked to official SSA bank accounts—facilitating the diversion of funds to private accounts.
According to investigative sources, the suspect walked into a nationalised bank and successfully replaced the mobile number tied to SSA’s official accounts. This critical lapse—or possible collusion—by bank staff allowed a series of high-value fraudulent transactions to go unnoticed until it was too late.
The fraud came to light when a private bank, detecting suspicious activity, alerted SSA authorities. CCTV footage captured the suspect at the bank, but he remains unidentified. Police have circulated his image to stations across various states to determine if he has a prior criminal record that could aid in identifying him.
Of the ₹5 crore siphoned off, only a few lakh rupees have been frozen. The bulk of the money—over ₹4.5 crore—was transferred to multiple private accounts. Notably, ₹2 crore was traced to a garment trader in West Bengal, who has since been arrested by Porvorim police.
Investigators are now focused on understanding how such a critical change to the bank account was made without triggering security alerts. They are probing whether Know Your Customer (KYC) norms were bypassed, either through internal negligence or deliberate collusion.
Both the SSA and the nationalised bank are under intense scrutiny. A senior official revealed that SSA had issued explicit instructions to the bank to honour only cheques signed by the Chief Accounts Officer during the officials’ absence for a meeting in Delhi. These instructions appear to have been disregarded.
“What’s most troubling is the misuse of cheques, especially when SSA’s cheque book was believed to be untouched, and regular payments were handled via direct bank transfers,” the official added.
Authorities are continuing the investigation and are determined to apprehend the mastermind behind the sophisticated fraud.