Malda, Feb. 20: An official in the Bengal Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe welfare board and a sweeper of Englishbazar Municipality have been arrested on charges of misappropriating Rs 40 lakh from the National Scheme for the Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers.

The officer, Dibyendu Sen, and the sweeper, Ratan Harijan, were arrested last evening after Malda district magistrate Chittaranjan Das instructed the manager of the board, Sanat Kumar Das, to file a complaint with the Englishbazar police against the two men for embezzlement. While Sen was picked up from his home in Birbhum district, Ratan was caught here.

The case dates back to 1995, when the Centre decided to do away with manual scavengers, who came from the Harijan community, and introduced rehabilitation packages for them. A source in the district administration said a list containing the names of 491 scavengers had been sent to the welfare department, where Sen, a field officer, was in charge of the disbursement of funds. The amount for each scavenger included a grant of Rs 10,000 plus bank loans up to Rs 10,000 (depending on the period of employment).

“In February 2005, following an inquiry, it came to light that all those who had been sanctioned grant-cum-loan of Rs 20,000 each between 2003 and 2004 never got the money,” said the district magistrate. By then, Sen had been transferred to Purulia and officers who replaced him had suspected that funds had been misused during his time.

The probe revealed that Sen and Ratan opened several fake accounts in the name of the beneficiaries in the three cooperative banks in town and allegedly stole the money. Malda police chief Dilip Mondal said more people were probably involved in the crime. “I will not be surprised if a few bank and civic officials are found to have had a hand in the whole thing,” Mondal said.

Englishbazar Municipality chairman Narendranath Tewari refused to comment on the issue.