A Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty em­ploy­ee has been grant­ed $450,000 bail af­ter be­ing ar­rest­ed and charged with em­bez­zle­ment at the min­istry.

The TTPS, in a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, said Kavi­ta Ma­haraj, a for­mer cashier, is ac­cused of fal­si­fy­ing of­fi­cial records and mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ing an es­ti­mat­ed $718,000 in­tend­ed for the min­istry.

Po­lice said an in­ter­nal au­dit con­duct­ed by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry re­vealed dis­crep­an­cies in fi­nan­cial records be­tween Jan­u­ary 2023 and Sep­tem­ber 2023. Ma­haraj had re­port­ed­ly been ab­sent from du­ty since 2024 and had not been for­mal­ly sus­pend­ed at the time of the al­leged of­fences. Her du­ties in­clud­ed the col­lec­tion of cash pay­ments for ser­vices such as work per­mits and the re­mit­tance of those funds to the min­istry.

Po­lice said a for­mal re­port was made to the Fraud Squad, and af­ter in­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tions by a team co­or­di­nat­ed by Act­ing Cpl Saun­ders, Ma­haraj was ar­rest­ed at her San­gre Grande home on Ju­ly 24. She was charged on Ju­ly 27 with one count of em­bez­zle­ment by a pub­lic ser­vant and ap­peared be­fore Mas­ter In­di­ra Chinebass, where she was grant­ed bail in the amount of $450,000.

Po­lice said bail con­di­tions in­clude manda­to­ry re­port­ing to a spe­cif­ic po­lice sta­tion twice per week, and im­me­di­ate no­ti­fi­ca­tion to the court of any change in ad­dress. The mat­ter has been ad­journed to Oc­to­ber 31, for a sta­tus hear­ing.