Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Fingers have been raised on the functioning of SIT probing DPF-GPF embezzlement case of Ujjain’s Bhairavgarh Central Jail as the district treasury office has been left from the list of accused responsible for embezzlement of around Rs 15 crore.
As revealed by a gazetted officer of the Finance Department, a preliminary probe submitted to the collector in the first week of March 2023 had found the role of both jail staff and treasury office as responsible for the embezzlement. Actually, funds of jail employees were embezzled and they should have been made complainant in the case, but assistant treasury officer Suresh Bhamar was made the complainant and on whose report the Bhairavgarh police station registered the crime on March 11. It is clearly evident from this move that efforts were made from day one to save the treasury staff which comes under collectorate, sources said.
The settled process through which this embezzlement was done involves three-tier system both for submitting application to withdraw money from DPF-GPF or other accounts of the employee and also for its sanction. Creator (clerk), verifier (senior clerk) and approver (drawing and disbursement officer, DDO) have to be involved in this process on both sides that is jail department and treasury office. About 100 incriminatory transactions in the name of 70 jail employees were made between the financial years 2018-19 to 2022-23 but most of them were made during the year 2022. Founding irregularity in some of such cases, the matter was finally reported to the police.
However, despite knowing the nexus involved in the present case, the police investigators overlooked the role of Treasury Department and zeroed their action up to jail superintendent Usha Raj, accounts in-charge Ripudaman Singh Raghuwanshi and some other jail employees and a few non-jail employees only. As revealed by the source, as soon as the bills were moved by the Jail Department online for clearance, the Treasury Department approved them for payment without any delay though the same department takes even three to five days to clear the payment of other departments. Bills for payment are moved to the treasury by more than 160 DDOs in the district every month.
Ripudaman Singh, who was recruited in the year 2011 on compassionate ground on the post of warder is supposed to be the kingpin of the entire case. He not only worked as creator and verifier on behalf of the Jail Department but was also instrumental in the expedited clearance of all the bills. It is also speculated that he was a frequent visitor at the treasury office and few of the employees of this office used to be his guests during lavish night parties. The treasury officers were so kind towards him that they used to clear his salary as Rs 4, 99, 180 (gross) and Rs 4, 83, 302 (net). In India only the President gets a salary of Rs 5 lakh per month, but Class-IV jail employee Ripudaman got this undue favour courtesy treasury office.
On being contacted by Free Press, SP Sachin Sharma said that no evidence has been found against the Treasury Department and that’s why no question arises to make any of the concerned employees an accused in the case. “To make anybody accused in any case, police must come across their direct involvement in the case or their intention in the crime,” SP said.
