Amritsar, October 29
An amount of over Rs 40 lakh has reportedly been siphoned off by a clerk of the Government Senior Secondary School, Akalgarh, Dhupai, in connivance with certain bank employees and staff of the government treasury, here.

It has been alleged that clerk Suba Singh has allegedly been withdrawing money from the General Provident Fund (GPF) accounts of as many as 20 teaching and four non-teaching school employees, in a fraudulent manner, since January 2007. The accused has been absconding since the time the matter came to light during the auditing of accounts.

The role of ex-principals of the school, the drawing and disbursing officials (DDO), the school bank’s cantonment branch and government treasury office have also come under scanner as the amount cannot be withdrawn from an individual’s account without them being taken into confidence. Today, an education department team, led by the Deputy District Education Officer (secondary), broke open the office almirahs, only to find that all the records pertaining to funds were missing.

Another team of audit general (Punjab), came to scrutinise the matter, but it had to return because of non-availability of school records.

Though, an inquiry has been marked by the Police Department (rural), no case has been registered yet. The matter has also been brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner, but no breakthrough in the case has been attained yet.

According to information, over 17 such suspected entries have been spotted by officials, through which Suba Singh had withdrawn the money, which includes an amount of Rs 3.08 lakh in January 2007, 4 lakh in October 2008 and Rs 3 lakh in January 2010.

Apart from the school records, the GPF ledger as well as A (acquaintance) rolls, have been missing, which would hamper the inquiry proceedings. Manjit Kaur and Kartar Singh, the ex-officiating principals, during whose tenure this misappropriation took place, demanded an unbiased inquiry into the incident.

“We did not have any inkling of what he (Suba Singh) has been doing all these years. He might have forged our signatures on cheques to withdraw money. We want that a thorough probe into the incident should be conducted to expose the truth”, they said.

The spokesperson of the Joint Platform of Mass Organisations, Jarmanjit Singh Bath, who was the whistle blower in the incident, said Suba Singh has been missing since October 21, when the audit team turned up to scrutinise the records of the school.

Jalandhar, October 29
Although the Police Department placed two cops under suspensions a day ago in the police torture case, but in the absence of any complainant, the police is in a dilemma about the registration of a criminal case against the suspected cops.

While talking to The Tribune, SSP Ashish Chaudhary claimed that the cops were suspended for their misconduct, but they had not confessed to the crime. Moreover, the victim had not come to lodge a complaint against the police personnel.

The SSP claimed to have appealed to the victims to lodge a complaint with the police.

He, however, admitted that the MMS was recorded by a cop and circulated.

Now, the question arises why the police is unable to find out the whereabouts of the victim from the suspended cops, who tortured him. Moreover, the cops must be knowing the victim’s address.

The second question is if the police tortured him under the pressure from certain influential persons, the cops must be aware of the persons who got him tortured at the police station. The police is working on various theories to find out how old the MMS is and the channels through which it travelled.