Clerk suspected of embezzling Rs 26 crore from Latur district collector office transferred to tehsil

A clerk who is accused of stealing Rs 26 crore from the Latur district collector's office has been sent to the district's Ausa tehsil, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the minister of revenue for Maharashtra, briefed the state assembly.

The clerk and three others were involved in the embezzlement of Rs 25.91 crore government funds from the Latur tehsildar’s bank account, the minister said in a written reply to a query by BJP MLA Sambhajirao Patil Nilangekar. 

Nilangekar said the collector had instructed that the clerk, Manoj Nagnath Phuleboyne, be no longer entrusted with cash and audit duties after his involvement in the embezzlement, but the IAS officer’s order was ignored.

The scam pertains to withdrawals from two bank accounts that belong to the Latur Collector’s office The matter came to light after an order was issued to distribute the said amount, but officials realized that the money was siphoned off from the bank accounts over seven years, between 2015 and 2022.