FIVE NDRI EMPLOYEES SUSPENDED IN ₹1.23CR SCAM

KARNAL: Almost a year after a sum of ₹1.23 crore was allegedly siphoned off fraudulently from bank accounts of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), five employees of the NDRI were suspended. The suspended employees include the project director of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Dr Sohanvir Singh, Accounts Controller S George, administration officers Mithlesh Kumar, Vishal Acharya and Balbeer Singh. As per the sources, the order of suspension was issued by Indian Centre for Agriculture Research, which is conducting an internal probe into the matter.

Talking to Hindustan Times, Smita Sirohi, the vigilance officer of NDRI, said, “Yes five people have been suspended but the investigation is still going on in the case.”

Sirohi had filed a complaint in March last year, alleging that five people had transferred this huge amount from the bank accounts of NDRI to their accounts fraudulently.

On the complaint on March 8, the Karnal police had booked Sukhvinder Singh, a senior research fellow of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, Amrender Kumar Srivastva, a research fellow, Manpreet Kaur, a PhD student hailing from Nawanshahr district of Punjab, Vikram Singh, brother of Sukhvinder, and Deepak Kumar, a clerk, under for allegedly transferring the huge amount from the bank accounts of NDRI to their personal accounts fraudulently.

One month later, the Crime Investigation Agency of Karnal police arrested the main accused Sukhwinder, and claimed recovery of cash and ornaments of ₹71 lakh from his possession.