Bihar postal circle unearths ₹2 cr scam in Patna GPO, seeks CBI probe

The circle office has suspended five officials and staff of the savings bank division, including assistant post master Rajesh Kumar Sharma, suspected to be involved in the case, soon after the financial bungling was detected a fortnight ago.

After stumbling upon a ₹2.02 crore fraud in the Patna general post office (GPO), the Bihar postal circle has proposed handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further investigation.

The Patna GPO building. (HT Photo)

The circle office has suspended five officials and staff of the savings bank division, including assistant post master Rajesh Kumar Sharma, counter clerk Munna Kumar and three others, suspected to be involved in the case, soon after the financial bungling was detected a fortnight ago.

The five staff members were found to be acting in connivance and had withdrawn more than ₹2.02 crore from old savings accounts, which were lying non-operational for the past few months. “They had the password to operate the account and therefore resorted to professional dishonesty to illegally withdraw the amount,” claimed a senior officer of the GPO.

The circle office is already conducting an internal inquiry by its investigation wing to understand the dimensions of the scam and to fix accountability on the staff who were involved in the scam.

“We have scrutinised the savings bank account details for the past four months and detected the bungling to be in tune of ₹2.02 crore. The scale of financial irregularities may go up, as all accounts dealt with by the suspended staffs are still under the investigation,” said a senior officer, adding that some of the staff were transferred to Patna GPO from other offices.

Chief post master general (CPMG) ME Haque said that the circle had proposed recommending a CBI inquiry into the scam. “There are certain formalities to comply with before handing over the case to the CBI,” said the CPMG.

Another senior officer of the circle office said that the accused staff members have so far returned ₹70 lakh to the GPO and their fixed deposit accounts, valued ₹55 lakh, have been frozen. “We are in the process of realising the rest amount from the staff,” said the officer, adding that the internal inquiry of the department would continue even after the CBI began its probe.