Deoria (UP), May 25 (PTI) As many as 330 digital tablets for distribution among students by the Uttar Pradesh government have gone missing from a strong room in the Deoria Sadar tehsil, officials said on Sunday.

Police have detained Rakesh Srivastava, a revenue department staff responsible for overseeing the tablets, for questioning after registering a case against him, the officials said.

The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by the local tehsildar, Krishna Kumar Mishra, at the Kotwali police station in Deoria.

Joint magistrate Shruti Sharma said the tablets meant for distribution among college students were kept in the strong room built in the Sadar tehsil.

While matching the stock on Friday, 330 tablets were found missing, she said.

A probe by naib tehsildar Shivendra Kaundilya revealed the negligence of Srivastava, who was posted as a custodian of the stock, Sharma said.

In his statement to Kaundilya, Srivastava claimed that someone broke into the strong room on the night of May 19.

When he found a new lock on the door the next day, he broke it and put a new one but did not inform the higher authorities about the incident, Srivastava said in the statement.

According to the probe, the tablets were reportedly kept in a room other than the strong room without the knowledge of the authorities.

Srivastava has been accused of fraudulently changing the lock and embezzling 330 tablets without informing any competent official, Sharma said.

“A case of fraud has been registered against Srivastava at the Kotwali police station. A report has been sent to the district magistrate, and action will be taken in the matter soon,” Sharma said. PTI COR NAV ARI ARI