Cuttack, March 10: Eight years after it was detected that 141 bogus employees had been drawing salaries from Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for years together, the Odisha CID-Crime Branch has made headway in its investigation into the multi-crore fake staff scandal.

The state CID-Crime Branch, which had taken up the investigation in pursuance of a high court order in 2008, has detected the complicity of two officers and a clerk of the civic authority in facilitating the illegalities.

Official records indicated that a “fake employees” scandal had surfaced in June 2003 when at least 141 fake employees were found to be drawing salaries. The civic administration had found that in different categories in the Class IV staff grade, people were drawing salaries from the CMC, but there were no records of their appointment. On an average, CMC had been paying Rs 3,000 to each of them every month. Nearly Rs 2.5 crore had been drawn in salaries since June 1998.

Although the required documents connected with their appointments were not available, their names had figured in the CMC’s official registers, albeit with the help of forged documents, which in turn were prepared by some unscrupulous clerks working with the corporation. Some officers were apparently hand in glove with the racket operators.

“After collection of evidence, cases have been registered against three persons, employees of the corporation. They were arrested on Tuesday. Investigation is in progress,” said R.C. Behera, superintendent of police (CID-Crime Branch).

The three accused persons are Kedarnath Behera (sanitary officer), Braja Kishore Rout (dealing assistant) and Pravakar Mishra (former sanitary officer), official sources said.

Initially, the CID-Crime Branch had taken up investigation in pursuance of a high court order in 2008 following media reports about a sarpanch allegedly drawing salary from CMC as a fourth grade employee.

Investigation had revealed that one Prasanta Kumar Samal of Bauripada gram panchayat in Balasore district had been fraudulently drawing salary from Cuttack Municipal Corporation as a “drain gang” staff for at least the past 10 years.

The inquiry also revealed that it was not Prasanta Kumar Samal alone but a few others who had taken advantage of an organised racket of bogus and fraudulent employment in connivance with some corporation employees and had managed to draw salaries for years together. The report was submitted in court.

Acting on it, the high court had in 2009 directed the inspector general of police (CID, Crime Branch) to investigate the matter further as the inquiry made thus far had pointed towards the possibility of several others taking advantage of the racket, thereby causing financial loss to the CMC. In 2004, Pradip Sahu, 47, a resident of the city, had filed a PIL in the high court seeking an investigation by an independent agency, preferably the CBI, into the fake employees’ scandal.

Apparently, fake employees were initially lured into the racket with the prospect of being paid a month’s salary for turning up only on paydays. In return, these people would have to pay 50 per cent of their salaries to the racketeers. Some of the officers were allegedly involved in the racket by facilitating the illegal process for a share in the booty. The fake employees, all belonging to different categories in the class IV staff grade, had reportedly shelled out between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 each to the racketeers.

According to conservative estimates, more than Rs 5 crore had allegedly changed hands during the intervening time. The racket had cost the CMC more than Rs 2.5 crore.