Heads roll in pension scam, six suspended

VISAKHAPATNAM: After a long delay in taking action against the accused, the Treasury department suspended six of their employees, including one assistant director, two sub-treasury officers and three senior accountants who were reportedly connected with the illegal and unauthorised withdrawal of pensioners’ amounts at Seethammadhara sub-treasury office case which surfaced during 2013 to November 2016. In the scam nearly `6.8 crore was defulcated by miscreants in the name of duplicate pensioners.

“As our internal audit team identified the fraudulent withdrawal of pension amounts with duplicate names valued at `6.80 crore in several phases, the government issued orders. Assistant director Jayaram, STOs VV Joga Rao and Subhakar along with senior accountants Pydi Raju, Prakash and Benjamin were suspended. The government also issued transfer orders from the District Treasury office. Now the new staff will assume charge,” announced V Sudhakar, the deputy director of the District Treasury Office. 

Prime accused arrested
Meanwhile, Dwaraka Zone police arrested the prime accused,  K Appala Raju, in the pension Scam and produced him before the media on Wednesday. Later he was produced in the court. Appala Raju, the suspended employee of the Seethammadhara STO, was identified as the main accused in fraudulent withdrawals of pensioners’ amounts. Treasury officials lodged complaints at the police station and he was suspended twice for the same cause. Now, after the Treasury officials found his involvement, the Treasury officials lodged a compalint at the Dwarka zone PS. Meanwhile, the Vigilance and Enforcement officials inspected the records at the Seethammadhara STO on the same issue and seized some records. After his suspension in 2016, Appala Raju went underground and absconded. Now the Police arrested him.  

With the recent developments, police officials are expecting some more names in the scam may come to light. The Treasury officials are also expecting more suspensions. “It all happened due to some office staff negligence in their duties and delay in taking proper action on the main culprit. It is very unfortunate that half a dozen employees got suspension orders at a time,” Sudhakar told Express.