The City Police on Friday arrested two persons including an employee of Divisional Sub-Treasury Office at Seethammadhara on charges of fraudulently diverting pension amounts from the accounts of beneficiaries to their personal bank accounts.
The police confirmed that pension arrears amounting to ₹1.4 crore were transferred the bank accounts of the accused in three instalments in six months, of which around ₹76 lakh has been recovered. The accused are Y. Venkata Narsinga Rao from Simhachalam who works as a junior accountant at the Divisional Sub-Treasury Office (DSTO), Seethammadhara and Garikina Santosh Kumar, a resident of Santhi Nagar area. Three more persons, all family members of the accused, are yet be arrested.
“The fraud came to light when Assistant Treasury Officer K.S. Venkateswara Rao, during an inspection of monthly pension payments, found that ₹50.66 lakh was deposited to the account of a pensioner, Y. Varalakshmi in two transactions (₹16 lakh in May and ₹34 lakh in August),” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law & Order – I) M. Ravindhranadh Babu told the media here on Friday.
Mr. Venkateswara Rao further found that the amount was transferred from the account of Narsinga Rao and the pensioner was none but his mother, the DCP said, adding that a complaint was lodged at Dwaraka Police station and Narsinga Rao was under scanner.
As the case was in progress, another complaint was lodged by the officials of the same office after they noticed that ₹90 lakh was transferred to two pension accounts— ₹54 lakh to that of one G. Masen Rao and ₹36 lakh to K. Ramulamma’s account. This transaction was also allegedly made by Narsinga Rao.
Modus operandi
“The accused befriended his office colleagues and managed to get the user IDs and passwords used for transferring the monthly pensions to the accounts of beneficiaries. Using the same, Narsinga Rao allegedly transferred the amounts,” Mr, Ravindhranadh Babu said.
According to the DCP, Narsinga Rao and Garikina Santosh, both friends, were allegedly hand in glove in the malpractice. Masen Rao whose account was credited ₹54 lakh is father of Santosh and Ramulamma is also known to him, he said.
“Primary investigation revealed that the three pensioners whose accounts were credited with the money are aware of the fraud. But, they are yet to be arrested. Of the ₹1.4 crore diverted illegally, ₹76 lakh —₹64 lakh in cash and ₹11.6 lakh as bank deposits—has been recovered,” the DCP said.
Accused Narsinga Rao got a job in the department in 2016 on a compassionate grounds after his father died during his service in Police Department. “The probe is on. We are trying to recover the remaining amount. We will check if there is any involvement of other employees in the fraud,” the DCP added.
