Agartala, Sep 6 (IANS): The Tripura Police have raided many places in Agartala and its outskirts to arrest an education department employee who illegally pocketed around Rs.12 lakh from a central education scheme, an official said here Saturday.

"We have raided several places to arrest education department cashier Arnab Chakraborty. He is now on the run. We will arrest him soon," police officer Milan Datta told IANS.

He said an FIR (first information report) was filed Friday night by the department against Chakraborty for withdrawing around Rs.12 lakh after forging the signature of senior officials.

Education department sources said Chakraborty was dealing with the fund of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), a centrally sponsored scheme of the union human resource development ministry for the expansion of secondary education in public schools across India.

Top education department officials met here Saturday and decided to conduct a thorough evaluation of the entire fund under the RMSA.

Recently, the state government suspended education department deputy director and in-charge of RMSA Ambalika Datta and also cautioned additional director of school education D.K. Debbarma for issuing an order to purchase books written by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and former chief secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda.

The order was issued without taking permission from the appropriate authority.