“The embezzlement had been reportedly going on for the last three years. Certain staff member of accounts branch took undue advantage of the fact there was only one Section Officer, who was signing the salary documents of almost 6,500 cops,” said a police officer. (Representational Image)
Six police personnel along with a former cop, who is currently posted as the incharge of salary branch, were transferred to Police Lines in Sector 26 after being indicted in a fact-finding probe pertaining to embezzlement of government funds by transferring allowances, LTA into the salary accounts of chosen 40 police personnel.
The former cop, Balwinder Kumar, incharge of the salary branch, was transferred from the accounts branch to public window. He was the junior assistant (JA) in the salary branch. The other six cops indicted are Head Constable Mukesh Kumar, Yogender, Ved Parkash, Constable Rajbir, Jatinder and woman constable Usha Devi.
SP (headquarters) Manoj Kumar Meena issued the transfer orders. He said, “We transferred them to make sure they cannot tamper with the official records while sitting in the account/pension branch. Forty other cops in whose accounts money was credited are still in the field. We will examine their role. A SIT was constituted to probe this scandal. The transfer orders were issued on March 6.”
Assistant Controller (Accounts & Finance) Sudhir Parashar conducted the internal probe. “The salary of Section Officer Jagdeep Singh Sehrawat for the entire tenure in the police department checked and nothing was found overpaid… Role of two previous Section Officers — Jaspal Singh and Ravinder Kumar — needs to be verified indepth,” the report said.
Sources said most of the police personnel out of 40 beneficiary cops in whose salary accounts huge money was credited on the fake entries of inflated conveyance allowances, ration/food allowances were batchmates of JA Balwinder Kumar when he had joined the police department in 1988.
On the basis of finding of Sudhir Parashar, an FIR of forgery, cheating and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered.
A special team under the supervision of SP (crime) Manoj Kumar Meena is probing the matter. A police officer said, “The embezzlement had been reportedly going on for the last three years. Certain staff member of accounts branch took undue advantage of the fact there was only one Section Officer, who was signing the salary documents of almost 6,500 cops. The accounts branch needs at least four section officers. These posts were sanctioned but still lying vacant.”
Section officer named in FIR sources said although probe officer Sudhir Parashar has not found the salary account of Section Officer Jagdeep Singh Sehrawat overpaid, he was named in the FIR along with others. The FIR was registered at Sector 3 police station. A police officer said, “Criminal charges against someone are established or not will be clear after examining all the facts.”