The ASI discovered the alleged fraud during a financial audit, which had not been conducted for the last 10 years. (Representational Image)Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a 47-year-old lower division clerk of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for allegedly siphoning funds worth Rs 9.5 crore in the last 10 years.
The arrest was made after the ASI registered an FIR against two of their staff for allegedly siphoning funds worth over Rs 7 crore. The ASI discovered the alleged fraud during a financial audit, which had not been conducted for the last 10 years.
“We arrested the accused, Prem Prakash, after we found concrete evidence against him,” Additional CP (EOW) Suvashish Choudhary said.
The complaint was filed by Deputy Superintendent of ASI (Delhi zone) Raghu Prakash, who alleged the accounts department had returned a bill generated without official approval. “An internal enquiry found the bill was attached with a forged sanction order, supply order, official note-sheet and account details of the vendor. Also, several other bills were sent to the accounts department,” Prakash alleged.
Police found that Prem had prepared fake login IDs of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), a portal that links financial networks of central and state governments and their agencies. “No one in his office was aware of PFMS. He prepared forged bills and sent them to the accounts office via PFMS. These were sanctioned and around Rs 9.5 crore was allegedly embezzled by him,” police said.
