Raisen was one of the districts in Madhya Pradesh to have been covered in the first phase of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) that was launched in 1994 to overhaul primary education in the country.

A more ambitious programme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan replaced DPEP in 2001. At that time DPEP funds worth crores were lying unutilised. In Raisen, an amount of at least Rs 1.18 crore was never returned to the Bhopal-based State Education Centre, the state-level body that supervises education activities in all districts.

District Collector Sandeep Yadav told The Indian Express on Thursday that Assistant Project Coordinator (finance) N P Patel opened an account in his name in a cooperative bank and managed to deposit drafts worth Rs 1.18 crore received from block resource centres though they were not issued in his name.

The District Magistrate, the District Project Coordinator and the Chief Executive Officer of the district panchayat jointly hold the bank account and money can be withdrawn only with the signatures of at least two of them. In this case, Rs 63 lakh was withdrawn from the bank.

Yadav, who took the unprecedented decision of sealing the entire office of the District Project Coordinator, said the needle of suspicion pointed to Patel, who did not have any explanation for the missing funds nor could he produce any documents.

To prevent fudging and to ensure that documents did not go missing Yadav asked Sub-Divisional Magistrate Manoj Sariam to seal the office. Yadav said the scam was not possible without the active involvement of bank officials because they deposited drafts in Patel’s account though they were not issued in his name.

A team from the office of Joint Director of Treasury and Accounts had found irregularities during an audit. Sariam said the office was sealed to allow the team access to all papers after the staff was asked to vacate it. The seal was opened on Thursday afternoon and the 20-odd staff members were allowed to work.

DPC R K Tiwari, who joined the office two years ago, claimed he was not aware how Patel opened the account in his name and managed to withdraw such a huge amount. He said projects under DPEP were officially wound up in the district in December 2002.