2 Punjab tourism board officials booked for ₹90 lakh embezzlement
The misappropriated amount is expected to be higher as the board officials have checked just one account so far. The accused have been identified as Rajni Pandey, the former senior accountant of PHTPB and SP Singh Dhindsa, who was working as a project coordinator-cum-manager, finance and account.
Two officials of the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB) have been booked for embezzlement of funds to the tune of ₹90 lakh. The misappropriated amount is expected to be higher as the board officials have checked just one account so far.
The accused have been identified as Rajni Pandey, the former senior accountant of PHTPB and SP Singh Dhindsa, who was working as a project coordinator-cum-manager, finance and account.
Punjab tourism and cultural affairs’ department director Kanwalpreet Brar, who is the complainant in the case, said Pandey had been working as a senior accountant in PHTPB since April 2009 while Dhindsa was the project coordinator-cum-manager of finance and accounts.
On March 23, 2021, Pandey tendered her resignation and left without settling her accounts or handing over the records.
Later during scrutiny, some discrepancies were found in the board’s account in SBI bank.
The account showed cash withdrawals of ₹50,000 and ₹90,000 made by Pandey but the same were not accounted for or entered in the cash book. With regards to ₹50,000, a cheque was shown as cancelled in the cheque register but the account showed that it had been encashed by Pandey. For the amount of ₹90,000, Pandey had, in a reply on March 15, denied embezzlement and claimed that it was an inadvertent mistake on her part and sought pardon.
The complainant said that there were no proper records of the advance issued and there was an unexplained difference of ₹70 lakh. Even the lease amount of ₹1.50 lakh received on April 11, 2014, was not deposited in the bank. Also, a cash receipt book was missing.
“The bare scrutiny of the bank statement of 2019 pointed out a number of suspicious and bogus transactions to the tune of ₹90 lakh,” the complainant alleged while adding that the amount is expected to be higher.
A case under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using a genuine) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the two accused at the Sector 39 police station.