Bankura police on Wednesday arrested two persons, including a former accountant of the office of the district’s chief judicial magistrate, for allegedly embezzling government funds worth Rs 2.33 crore.

The money was withdrawn to pay the salaries or bills of at least 20 fictitious staff and judicial magistrates for a year.

“We have arrested the two persons following a complaint lodged by the chief judicial magistrate. We have taken them in custody for interrogation to know their modus operandi. We will also arrest others if we find more involved,” said Dhritiman Sarkar, Bankura SP.

Police said arrested were former CJM court accountant Pritam Bhakat and his associate Avik Mitra. The duo were produced before Bankura court on Wednesday that remanded them to five days of police custody.

They were arrested after the CJM of Bankura Mayukh Mukherjee lodged a complaint with Bankura police on Tuesday, accusing Bhakat of misappropriating government money. The duo have been charged with cheating, misappropriation of government money and under sections of the Information Technology Act.

Sources said the present accountant of the CJM office, Giridhari Karmakar, while reviewing bills found some payments under the head of salaries of fictitious employees between April 2019 and September 2020. It was also found that the money had been routed to fictitious bank accounts. Court sources alleged Bhakat, between April 2019 and September 2020, registered these fake employees to make the dubious payments.

“So far, we have received names of around 20 such fictitious employees. There may be more. The total amount of fraud is over Rs 2.33 crore and it was done by manipulating the human resource management system (HRMS). As the accountant (Bhakat) had access to the HRMS portal in his capacity of a senior judicial officer, he apparently misused it,” said a senior police officer.

Police officers said the way Bhakat operated the scam raises suspicion that more people are involved.

“We will interrogate him in police custody to get to the bottom of the fraud,” the office said.