Rs 78 lakh siphoned off from govt account in Jharkhand

Rs 78,07,000 was siphoned off from the Ramgarh Block Development Officer's bank account via multiple cheques, which are believed to be fraudulent.

Ramgarh (Jharkhand): A sum of over Rs 78 lakh was siphoned off from a government account in Jharkhand, allegedly through fraudulent bank cheques.

According to reports, Rs 78,07,000 was siphoned off from the Ramgarh Block Development Officer's account via multiple cheques, which are believed to be fraudulent.

A government account with the Bank of Baroda was created in the name of the Ramgarh BDO. The account reportedly contains money related to the Indira Awas Yojana and its interest.

The entire incident came to light on February 3, when a cheque for Rs 18 lakh was deposited in Guwahati. When officials grew suspicious and probed the matter, it came to light that over Rs 78 lakh was siphoned off from the same account in a similar fashion.

At around 2 am on Thursday, Ramgarh BDO Anny Rinku Kujur submitted a request at the Ramgarh Police Station to register a case in the matter. However, an FIR is yet to be filed in the matter, as the police are still checking the facts.

Taking serious note of the matter, Ramgarh Sub-Divisional Officer Keerthishree obtained information from all the officials concerned. The SDO said that elaborate details of the case will emerge in a couple of days.

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Meanwhile, Preeti, the legal manager from the zonal office of the Bank of Baroda, said that the money was siphoned off through cheques, which appear to be fraudulent with fake signatures. She said that the bank managers of the two locations where such cheques were deposited, have been directed to file FIRs against the depositors of the cheques.

The BDO meanwhile, said that it needs to be investigated whether any officials were also involved in the fraud.

According to reports two such cheques were cleared on January 29 for Rs 35 lakh and Rs 35.21 lakh. the cheques were deposited in Chhattisgarh's Raipur by a person named Subhash Kale. Similarly, a cheque was deposited again in Bihar's Begusarai.

The officials grew suspicious when another such cheque for Rs 18.75 lakh was deposited in Guwahati by a person named VP Tiwari.

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