Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): The multi-million GPF and DPF scam in Central Bhairavgarh Jail has led to panic among cricket bookies of Ujjain, Indore and Dewas. In fact, the accused jail employees used to transfer money to such bookies for investment in cricket betting. The SIT formed to probe the scam has traced out links between jail employees and bookies following which all of them went underground. It is also anticipated that employees of treasury, audit and accounts departments and banks may also be made accused in the scandal.
Since registration of an offence in this regard under section 420, 409, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the IPC on March 11 at Bhairavgarh police station, the SIT has initiated a thorough probe into the scandal which amounts to Rs 16 crore. The GPF (general provident fund) of Class III, II and I employees and DPF (departmental provident fund) of Class-IV employees of the jail has been reportedly embezzled. Ironically, the FIR in this case was made by the assistant treasury officer Surendra Bhamar and not by the affected employees. In fact, they came to know about it only when the entire scam came to the fore. Later, around 60 jail employees recorded their statements to the police.
So far, five persons have been made accused in the case including jail accountant Ripudaman Singh Raghuwanshi, jail employee Shailendra Singh Sikarwar and three ‘outsiders’ Rohit Chaurishiya from Dewas, Ravi Mandre and Harish Gehlot from Ujjain. The three are reported to be bookies and Ripudaman Singh was instrumental in transferring Rs 92 lakh in Chaurishiya’s bank account, Rs 25 lakh in Mandre’s account and Rs 30 lakh in Gehlot’s account. The amounts were sanctioned in favour of Class-IV jail employees but the treasury employees transferred those to the bank accounts of Ripudaman Singh who in turn transferred it to the accounts of the bookies. All of them have been arrested while Ripudaman and Shailendra are still at large.
Meanwhile, the Bhairavgarh police on Thursday afternoon broke the lock of Ripudaman Singh’s jail quarter. The SIT team got several forms related to the DPF applications of the Class-IV employees amounting to lakhs of rupees. The applications were duly approved by the then jail superintendent Usha Raj who was the ex-officio drawing and disbursement officer (DDO). Receipts pertaining to purchase of gold jewellery during the year 2021 and 2022 amounting to more than Rs 20 lakh were also recovered from his house.
However, the forms recovered from Ripudaman Singh’s house may be troublesome for Usha Raj, who pleading illness got herself admitted to a private hospital in Indore. She deposed before SIT on March 18 and was asked not to leave Ujjain and report again on March 19, but she did not turn-up. Collector Kumar Purushottam told Free Press that the racket involved in the scandal cheated Class-IV as well as Class-III, II and I employees and the state government. He said that the racket members used to pass amount more than double against actually sought by the employees. The collector admitted that the DDO certainly had her hands in the entire case as approval of transactions could not be possible without her knowledge or consent.
