Sub-postmaster gets five-year jail for embezzling ₹8.5 cr

THE ACCUSED USED 54 FICTITIOUS ACCOUNTS TO SIPHON OFF THE MONEY DURING HIS POSTING AT NAKODAR AND RURKA KALAN BETWEEN 2014 AND 2017

: A former sub-postmaster accused of embezzling ₹8.50 crore was awarded five years jail by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge, Mohali, NS Gill, after he confessed to his crime. The court had framed charges against the accused on October 10 and the trial concluded on Friday.

The court also imposed a fine of ₹15.40 lakh on convict identified as Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Jalandhar. He was accused of forgery, misappropriation of government money by abuse of official position as subpostmaster during his posting at Nakodar and Rurka Kalan between 2014 and 2017.

The case was registered on the complaint of Kapurthala superintendent of post office Dilbagh Singh Suri. As per the CBI, the accused had embezzled the money through 54 fictitious accounts.

CBI had registered a case in January 2018 against the accused under Sections 120-B,409,420,467,468,471,477-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.

As per the CBI, the accused used to operate these accounts and through different transactions siphoned off the money. Investigations revealed that the accused used to enhance the denomination of recurring deposit (RD) accounts by adding zero. He also had made withdrawals by closure on maturity/ prematurely from accounts with enhanced denominations of RD accounts .