3 former SMOs among 6 convicted of Rs 2-crore provident fund fraud

The court of Sessions Judge Jalandhar-cum-Special ED court judge Nirbhow Singh Gill has convicted six persons, including doctors, for laundering nearly Rs 2 crore from the General Provident Fund (GPF) account of employees in the Primary Health Centre at Muzaffarpur in Nawanshahr.

Those convicted include pharmacist-cum-accountant Karampal Goel (who was the kingpin), his wife Nirmala Devi, former SMOs Dr Jugraj Singh, Dr Hardev Singh and Dr Krishan Lal and multi-purpose health worker Shalinder Singh.

Goel has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment, Nirmala Devi and Shalinder to four years, and the former SMOs to three years.

The case dates back to 2012 when Rakesh Aggarwal was the Nawanshahr SSP. While the state police is yet to file a challan in the case, the accused got implicated in a case that the ED's then Assistant Director Niranjan Singh (since retired) had taken up. Niranjan Singh, who was in the court to hear the final order, said his hard work in the case had finally helped nail the accused.

"The properties that the accused bought in Ludhiana and the shares of various companies that they had bought through the proceeds of the crime have also been confiscated on the orders of the court today," he said.

The police had found that the accused had withdrawn the amount from the accounts of 62 employees on the basis of forged papers. A recovery of Rs 6 lakh case from the house and bank account of Goel had been made. The police had also recovered registered sale deeds of 15 plots owned by Goel or his family in Ludhiana and NSC/Kisan Vikas Patras worth Rs 3.6 lakh from him. Goel had got a seat for his son in a private medical college in Bathinda by paying a ‘donation’ of Rs 22 lakh in NRI quota.

The police had also written to the managers of various banks in Ludhiana and Nawanshahr to seal Goel’s accounts, where Rs 9.5 lakh had been found deposited.

The then SSP Aggarwal had said Goel would prepare the papers of withdrawal of GPF in the names of employees, while they would be unawares. Clearly, there was a nexus with his higher-ups. His attempt to withdraw Rs 2.65 lakh and Rs 2.44 lakh in the names of sanitary inspector Darshan Singh and staff nurse Bhupinder Kaur, respectively, led to his nailing. He had joined the PHC in 2003 and had been planning the fraud since then.