CBI books five postal staff for swindling money from dead woman’s account
Exposing a financial racket operating from a Jammu and Kashmir post office, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against five postal employees for swindling thousands of rupees from the savings accounts of a late senior citizen operating in Gandhinagar Head Post Office in Jammu.
The agency has named as accused: Sadaf Gulzar, then Postal Assistant; Surinder Singh, then Postal Assistant; Karun Sharma, then Postal Assistant, Joginder Singh, then Postal Assistant and Amita, the Postal Assistant, and unknown others.
CBI sources said a list of accused has been prepared for questioning in connection with the fraud which started with the illegal closure of three accounts of Rani Fotedar in September last year.
Fotedar died on February 23, 2011, and her account was inactive at the time when the postal employees allegedly plotted to commit the misappropriation. “The account closure proceeds were fraudulently credited in the savings bank account in the name of Rani and later withdrawn in cash,” said the CBI FIR filed over offences of cheating, conspiracy, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct.
“The complaint, prima facie, reveals commission of offences punishable u/s 120-B IPC r/w 420, 477-A IPC, section 13 (1) (a) r/w 13 (2) of Act 1988 (amended in 2018), by the accused postal officials,” the FIR said.
The CBI filed the FIR against the five postal employees on Monday on receiving a complaint from Ankush Bhagat, Senior Superintendent of Post Office, Jammu Division, Jammu. CBI sources said the Gandhinagar Head Post Office has come under their scanner in recent months as a similar fraud case was registered against its employees in August where a Public Provident Fund account of a customer was illegally closed in May this year to misappropriate its money.
That case involved an amount of over Rs 23.36 lakh. The postal employees named in Fotedar’s case and the PPF account case are the same. The CBI had even conducted searches at the homes of the accused in August.
Modus operandi
- A list of accused has been prepared for questioning in connection with the fraud
- Rani Fotedar died in 2011 and her account was inactive at the time when the postal employees allegedly plotted to commit the misappropriation
- The account closure proceeds were fraudulently credited in the savings bank account in the name of Rani and later withdrawn in cash
