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The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a Regular
Case in connection with fraudulent payments of pensions in
the Northern Railways through fraudulent Pension Pay Orders
(PPOs) to persons who have either never worked in the Railways
or had worked for a short time and were not entitled to pensions.
In this connection, CBI is carrying out searches today in
seven places in Delhi and Haryana.
The fraud has occurred during the period from 2001 to 2004.
Specific instances of withdrawal of pension by 52 persons
to the tune of Rs.1.15 crore have been mentioned in the FIR
registered by CBI. PPOs in respect of the said 52 persons
were drawn on three Branches of a Public Sector Bank in Jind,
Narwana and Barwala in Haryana. Payments on the said PPOs
were made by the Bank without linking them with the original
PPOs which they were required to. The Personnel Branch and
Accounts Branch of the Northern Railway Headquarters at New
Delhi, which are the custodian of files relating to pensions,
are not having any record with regard to the said cases, which
shows that the PPOs were fraudulent.
Those named as accused in the FIR include an Assistant Divisional
Finance Manager, Delhi Division, Northern Railway, New Delhi,
a Senior Accounts Officer, Pensions, HQrs., Baroda House,
New Delhi, an Assistant Accountant, Delhi Division, Northern
Railway, New Delhi, a Fitter Gr. I and a Fitter Gr.II, both
in the Office of Coaching Depot Officer, Northern Railway,
Jind.
Preliminary indications are that the number of beneficiaries
of the fraudulent pension payments could be much higher than
those mentioned in the FIR and a big racket involving officials
of the Northern Railway, Banks and the beneficiaries along
with fraudulent payments to the tune of several crore of rupees,
is likely to be exposed during the investigation. The case
has been registered under-sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy)
r/w Section 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security),
468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine
a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(2)
r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
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