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Pension to dead persons in Haryana: HC notice to CBI after state failed to act
Dissatisfied with the government response, now the high court has sought CBI response whether the agency can probe the allegations.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday put the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on notice on a plea seeking probe by agency on the allegations of a large scale pension scam in Haryana. In the scam, social welfare pensions were disbursed in the name of dead persons by state officials in connivance with local bodies’ elected representatives across state.
The high court bench of justice RN Raina acted on the plea, filed by Kurukshetra resident Rakesh Bains, stating that despite several representations, the government was neither taking any action against officials nor registering FIRs to investigate the extent of scam. The matter had reached court in January 2017, following which high court sought reports from the government. Later thorough probe had revealed that 13,477 beneficiaries were such who were ineligible, many of them dead, and their pension was stopped.
FIRS Not Registered In All Cases: Govt TO HC
The government had told court that in Kurukshetra, a sewadar and a clerk were arrested and one district social welfare officer, Kurukshetra, and an assistant had been chargesheeted under relevant government rules. It also made recoveries of ₹13 lakh. However, FIRs were not registered in all the cases of fraud.
In April this year, high court had questioned the state on this aspect and sought to clarify why FIR was registered only in the case of Kurukshetra incident. “Prima facie, this court is of the view that the course of action adopted by the state government is not satisfactory,” the high court had observed in April seeking fresh response.
Recoveries Being Made
On Thursday, social justice department joint director had told court that recoveries are being made wherever illegal pension had been disbursed. However, with regard to FIRs, no decision regarding same has been taken. “No recommendation at all for registration of FIRs was made by the CAG and FIR in Shahbad and Kurukshetra was made on the complaint of petitioner,” the government had told court.
Countering state’s claims, the petitioners’ counsel Pardeep Rapria had told court that three departmental enquiries clearly mentioned the role of 11 municipal councillors, who had identified the dead beneficiaries and senior officers of department were also found involved. All municipal officials accused of committing scam have been made prosecution witnesses, he had told court accusing government of shielding the accused persons.
Dissatisfied with the government response, now the high court has sought CBI response whether the agency can probe the allegations.
