In a massive financial scam, a total of approximately Rs 2 crore was embezzled from the post office savings accounts of more than 1500 villagers in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar.
The scam came to light when the postmaster of Simgarhi sub-post office absconded. When the worried villagers checked their passbooks, they found that lakhs of rupees deposited in their accounts were missing. Their accounts, in which their savings were deposited, showed only a few thousand rupees or even zero balance.
70-year-old Sharda Devi, who had saved Rs 2 lakh in four years, now has only Rs 2,000 left in her account. “I had deposited small amounts sent by my daughter and old age pension. Now everything has disappeared,” she said.
Ramesh Rathore, who had saved Rs 12 lakh with years of hard work, now has zero balance in his account. “This was our entire life’s earnings. What will we do now?” he said with tears in his eyes.
The case of Balwant Singh, a rural disabled person who was also a victim of this fraud, was astonishing. He shared that since 2016, a written entry was provided by the absconding postmaster in his passbook, mentioning details of whatever savings he was making by selling cow and buffalo milk. However, when he went to check his bank statements recently at the Kameridevi Sub Post Office, he found that he had no account in the post office. When other villagers got their passbooks checked, many of them turned out fake.
During the investigation of this fraud following the complaint of the victim villagers, it has come to light that there were dozens of such accounts among the savings accounts of about 1500 villagers in the post office, in which the villagers have post office passbooks, but no account of those passbooks is registered in the post office.
According to village head Uttam Rathore, more than 1500 account holders of Simgarhi and surrounding villages have been affected by this scam. He said that the total deposit amount of the villagers can be up to about Rs 2 crores. Rathore said that most of the staff of the post office is on leave currently and the villagers are left wandering for their deposits.
A team of the postal department reached Simgarhi to investigate the scam, but when Inspector Anil Vyas asked the villagers to submit their passbooks, the villagers opposed it. They said that their passbook is the only proof of deposit and if they hand it over as well, they will be cheated completely.
“The matter is being investigated and strict action will be taken against the culprits. After the investigation, everything will become clear and we will punish the culprits,” Chief Postal Superintendent Rajesh Binwal said.
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