Dehra Dun, February 25
In what appears to be the first case of its kind, chairman of the management committee of Doon Dhruva Public School, a well-known ICSE-affiliated residential school near here, has fraudulently availed personal and educational loans worth crores from a nationalised bank in the name of staff members and students by forging their signatures and using bogus documents.
The multi-crore fraud came to light after some teachers came to know about personal loans against their names after the death of the chairman, management committee Dr Shyam Sunder Sharma (42) on January 15. "I was shocked to know that personal loans of Rs 4 lakh stand against me and my wife as we never applied for the same," said a teacher requesting anonymity. The bank records showed personal loans against 30 staff members, including teachers and 297 students. But sources said names of all 297 such students were not on the school rolls.
Interestingly, the bank had approved a special scheme of educational loans for this school in 2006. Though the sources said the total outstanding amount of both types of loans is estimated around Rs 8 crore even as the bank authorities claimed it to be around Rs 4-5 crore. Everything was
apparently found okay as per the bank’s audit report as repayments of the loans were being made regularly. But this stopped after Dr Sharma’s untimely death. It is also strange that the branch manager concerned did not know that more than 500 signatures and documents were fake.
Following the revelations, regional manager of the Central Bank of India J.R. Sharma personally supervised the investigation and removed the manager K.J. Rawat of the Sela Qui branch of the bank after finding the grave lapses committed by him in executing the loans.
“As per a preliminary inquiry, we have found the branch manager prima facie guilty of not executing the loan documents in his own presence which he must have done as per banking rules. This cannot be possible without his connivance. The inquiry is on but I must tell you, this is the first case of its kind in my 35 years’ banking career ,” Sharma told The Tribune. All accounts operations with school have since been stopped and the matter reported to the higher authorities of the bank.
Started four and half years ago, the school, being run by All-India Nilkanth Educational Society, Delhi, has 310 students from all parts of the country as well from Nepal and Bangladesh. It has 305 students on rolls, including 205 boarders. Its chairman Dr Sharma was a chartered accountant in Delhi before starting the school. His wife and vice-chairman Purnima Sharma, who has been personally looking after the school after her husband’s demise, feigned ignorance about the whole matter when asked for her version.
