Bhubaneswar: Evading law for over a decade, a former branch postmaster accused of siphoning off depositors’ money was finally arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in Odisha on Thursday.
The accused, Shabda Swain, was posted as Branch Postmaster at Bonda in Baragada district from 2008 to 2014.According to the CBI, Swain allegedly misappropriated nearly Rs 14 lakh during her tenure by fabricating entries in passbooks and not accounting for the deposits in official records. She showed fake entries to depositors to win their trust while diverting the money for personal use.
A case was registered against her in 2014. Charges were framed by the CBI court in Bhubaneswar in December 2015, but she went absconding soon after. Even after a non-bailable warrant was issued against her in 2022, she remained underground.
She was tracked and arrested from Baragada while she was attending a family function, officials said, calling it a significant breakthrough as her long absence had stalled the trial.
Swain was produced before the competent court in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. The agency is seeking her custodial interrogation to trace the siphoned funds and to ascertain if others were involved in the fraud.
