Noida: A week after the Surajpur police registered an FIR against Home Guard officials, charging them with fraudulently withdrawing salaries after fudging records, the attendance logs of Home Guard personnel since 2014 were burnt during the early hours of Tuesday by unknown persons.
On November 13, the police had registered an FIR in the matter and on November 18, the case was transferred to the crime branch for further investigation. The salary muster rolls were found burnt within a few hours of the case being transferred to the crime branch.
“It has been reported that there was a fire in the office of the district commandant, Home Guards. Station House officer (SHO) of Surajpur and fire safety officer (FSO), Surajpur, found a big box containing the muster rolls completely burnt. An FIR has been registered in the matter and a thorough investigation ordered. Special investigation teams under the SP (city) has been constituted to investigate the matter. Prima facie investigation showed that the box contained salary logs of home guards deputed at various police stations/government offices of Gautam Budh Nagar since 2014,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, said.
According to officials, the Surajpur police had the attendance logs for 2019. “The burnt attendance logs were for the years since 2014. We had already collected the logs since January 2019 and so it will not hamper our probe into the alleged salary fraud. We also have some attendance logs since 2018 and 2019,” Jitendra Kumar Deekhit, station house officer, Surajpur, said.
{{/usCountry}}According to officials, the Surajpur police had the attendance logs for 2019. “The burnt attendance logs were for the years since 2014. We had already collected the logs since January 2019 and so it will not hamper our probe into the alleged salary fraud. We also have some attendance logs since 2018 and 2019,” Jitendra Kumar Deekhit, station house officer, Surajpur, said.
{{/usCountry}}In July, police came to know that salaries of home guards deployed at various police stations and government offices in the district were withdrawn despite them not reporting to duty for the better half of May and June.
A police probe revealed that salaries amounting to ₹7.5 lakh was withdrawn by “absent” home guards personnel and they were marked as present for the whole of May and June. Entertaining the possibility that this could be part of a larger statewide fraud, amounting to crores of rupees, all Uttar Pradesh districts were asked to probe Home Guard salary rolls in their respective jurisdiction.
The FIR in Surajpur was lodged under the Indian Penal Code sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (fraud), 467, 468 and 471 (all three related to forgery of documents).
“We were informed about the fire by 10.15am Tuesday. When we reached the spot, the fire had died and the boxful of documents was burnt,” Arun Kumar, chief fire officer, said.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken serious note of the fire and directed forensic teams to collect evidence from the spot, the CM’s information department said.
Adityanath also directed the district magistrate BN Singh and senior police officers to take immediate action in the matter.
There are around 840 Home Guard personnel in 25 platoons in the district. “It is a serious matter and thorough investigation is taking place in the case. We will be imposing the stringent Gangster Act on the accused responsible for burning the documents,” Singh said.