Bengal man granted bail in Samagra Shiksha fraud case

Mapusa court has released on bail Rabin Paul, a 40-year-old West Bengal native, who was arrested by Porvorim police in the Samagra Shiksha fraud case on May 15.

The investigating officer informed the court that the offence was highly serious, consisting of siphoning of public funds from the govt department's bank account and transferring fraudulently to other bank accounts and resulting in a loss to the state govt. The officer further said that Paul was involved in a large racket and, if granted bail, could abscond or warn the other sitting accused persons and destroy evidence.

The court added that it seemed the investigation was over and that he was no longer needed in custody. The investigating officer, the court said, had not presented any reasons for denying his request for bail.

TOI had quoted the police as saying that the case was one of a huge racket of numerous accused individuals and was investigated thoroughly. The amount said to have been tapped from the bank account of Goa Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan was for implementation of school education schemes.

GSSA maintains a savings account in the Porvorim branch of a nationalized bank under the name of Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Society, and the corruption came to light in April when an auditor of a private bank pointed to the transactions. Immediately the bank manager of private bank approached the GSSA office and highlighted the transactions. All the bank accounts involved have been frozen, and even the trail of money was traced by the police.