The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered two cases for misappropriation of depositors’ money worth Rs 35.26 lakh in two Chamba post offices in Himachal Pradesh.
In the first case, it has been alleged that one Ashish Kumar, while posted as Gramin Dak Sevak and Branch Post Master at Masroond (Chamba), committed misappropriation of funds in 30 Post Office Saving Accounts, 125 Recurring Deposit accounts, three Time Deposit accounts, 61 Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, one Mahila Samman Savings Certificate account and one Rural Postal Life Insurance policy to the tune of Rs 32.22 lakh.
According to the FIR, whenever an account holder visited the Branch Post Office to deposit cash, he accepted the amount, made the entry of deposits into the Passbook, and further used to put an official stamp of the Branch Office and did his initials at the entry in Passbook as the token of having received the amount. Whereas, there was variation in the amount entered in the Passbook and ledger copy of the savings account.
Further, he used to destroy the Pay-in slip and used pre-filled forms by the customers to commit the crime. He did not account for the deposit of the amount into Branch Office accounts. The transactions were never reflected in journals or the FD Accounts of the account holders.
In a similar case, Bhagwat Prashad, who was posed as Gramin Dak Sevak and Branch Post Master at Sultanpur (Chamba), committed misappropriation in 69 pension accounts of Old, physically-challenged, widows pensioners to the tune of Rs 3.04 lakh.
According to the FIR, he used to take the signatures or thumb impressions of account holders and witnesses in the extra withdrawal form and retain the pass books of some account holders.
The fraud took place from November 2022 to December 2022.
The CBI, Anti-Corruption Branch, Shimla, registered FIRs in both the cases under relevant sections.