Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Accounts Assistant of South Central Railway (SCR), Secunderabad, and three city-based pharmaceutical agencies for producing fraudulent pharma bills for ₹2.20 crore and wrongfully causing loss to railways.
Based on the complaint lodged by SCR Deputy Chief Vigilance Officer (Accounts) R.V.R. Murthy, the investigating agency registered a case and launched a probe.
Fraudulent payment
In the four-page complaint copy, Mr Murthy alleged that a suspected fraudulent payment of pharma supply bills was detected by Principal Financial Adviser’s office of SCR during a test check in which 31 fake bills without GST number and with fake purchase order numbers were passed between October 2018 and April 2019.
He also alleged that Accounts Assistant of expenditure section, V. Ganesh Kumar along with others ‘misused’ his official position and generated and passed 31 fraudulent pharma bills issued in the name of three non-existing firms — Sai Balaji Pharma and Surgical, Vinayaka Agencies and Sri Thirumala Agencies — by using his user ID and password in SCR’s Integrated Payroll and Accounting System.
“As per the preliminary enquiry conducted by the vigilance branch of SCR, the fraudulent payments were found be around ₹ 2.20 crore, which were credited into the Axis Bank accounts of the fake firms,” said the First Information Report of the CBI.
More may be involved
The preliminary enquiry suspects the involvement of other SCR officials and private persons.
The accused officer, who was placed under suspension on May 10 this year for causing loss to the railways, was not entrusted with the job of passing the medical bills, Mr Murthy said.
He added that the bills are apparently certified in medical department for receipt of medicine supply, also by senior divisional accountant and has been stamped and signed for forwarding those to accounts office. “It is possible the signatures are forged. Or maybe there was connivance of more than one individual,” he said.