Vigilance unearths RS 7 crore scam in Karnana multi – purpose agriculture service society

REGISTERS CASE AGAINST 7 ACCUSED, 5 ARRESTED

 

Chandigarh 29 August:

Punjab Vigilance Bureau has unearthed a Rs seven crore scam in the Karnana multipurpose agricultural service society limited village Karnana, District SBS Nagar and registered a case against 7 officers/employees at VB police station at Jalandhar. In this case the Bureau has arrested 5 accused of the case.

Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau said that during the investigation into the accounts of the society, it has came to light that a scam to the tune of Rs 7,14,07,596.23  (Seven crores, fourteen lakhs seven thousand five hundred and ninety six rupees and three paise) has been committed in connivance with officers/employees of the said cooperative society.

He said that there are about 1000 account holders/members in the said society. This society has been running an Indian Oil petrol pump, tractor and agricultural implements to plough a large amount of agricultural land. Apart from this, the said society also sells fertilizers and pesticides to the farmers and a total of 6 employees are working in different places in the said society.

He said after investigating the matter, it came to light that NRIs of village Karnana and the people of this village got the FDRs worth crores of rupees in the name of above society. Secretary of the said Sabha Inderjit Dhir, who has also been the cashier earlier, embezzled crores of rupees by setting limits etc. on the said FDRs in collusion with the president Randhir Singh and the present cashier Harpreet Singh.

The spokesperson said that during the checking of the records by the technical team from 01.4.18 to 31.03.20, the loans taken by the members of the sabha and deposits of the members amounted to Rs. 7,14,07,596.23 were found to be embezzled

Giving the details of this scam, he informed that during the investigation, it was also found that two computers were installed in the society by the secretary Inderjit Dhir, out of which one system was to show the records to the members so as to satisfy them about the entries of their deposits. On the second computer, it was found that the secretary used to feed the data according to the amount of fraud committed to get verification of from the audit team and other officials.

On the basis of investigation of this scam, it has been established that former secretary of the society Inderjit Dhir, Harpreet cashier, Randhir Singh former president, Sukhwinder Singh vice president, Ravinder Singh committee member, Mahinder Lal committee member and Kamaljit Singh committee member (all residents of village Karnana) have in connivance with each other committed a fraud to the tune of Rs 7,14,07,596.23 in the above said society.

The spokesperson said that in this regard, a case no 15 dated 29.08.2022 against the above-mentioned accused under sections 406, 409, 420, 465, 468, 471, 477-A, 120-B of I.P.C. and  u/s 13(1), 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, has been registered at Vigilance Bureau, Police Station Jalandhar.

The accused in this case, Randhir Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ravinder Singh, Mahinder Lal and Kamaljit Singh (all residents of Karnana village) have been arrested. Further investigation in this case is under progress.

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