Rs 13.8 lakh goes 'missing' for 7 hrs from railway booking office
Saturday remained a hectic day for the officials and booking office clerks of the railway station as their morning started with the news of 'missing' `13.8 lakh from the booking office coffer. A lot of chaos was witnessed till 3 pm as there was no clue whether the money was stolen, has gone missing or has been misplaced.
Saturday remained a hectic day for the officials and booking office clerks of the railway station as their morning started with the news of 'missing' Rs 13.8 lakh from the booking office coffer. A lot of chaos was witnessed till 3 pm as there was no clue whether the money was stolen, has gone missing or has been misplaced.
After seven hours of chaos, the officials found that the money was not stolen, but it all happened due to a dispute between the two employees who had to take and leave the charge of money and this situation created the whole discrepancy.
Locks were not broken
At 8 am, the head cashier on duty at the booking office, after coming back from a short break, found that there was no money in the coffer. The amount was Rs 13.8 lakh. The locks were not broken. It was supposed that duplicate keys might have been used, said sources.
As the government railway police (GRP) personnel remain on the entry gate all the time near the booking counter, it was difficult to grasp that such a huge amount was stolen by an outsider without coming to anyone's notice, the sources added. Nearly six clerks were also working in the booking office at that time.
Closed-door meetings
Union members with divisional traffic manager (DTM) SP Singh Bhatia, station superintendent RK Sharma and other officials reached the spot. Thereafter, a round of meetings went on between the employees and officials behind closed doors.
No official was ready to comment directly on the issue in between, but they admitted that the money was missing and they were trying to find out the person accountable for the money.
No memo issued, no complaint registered
No memo was issued and no official complaint was registered with the GRP for the 'missing' money. At 3 pm, the DTM said, "The matter has been resolved and money has been found. There was some charge taking dispute between two employees that created the discrepancy."
On being asked whether any disciplinary or administrative action would be taken against the employees responsible for the chaos, the DTM said, "I will make a report of the incident and will send that to higher authorities for disciplinary action."
Senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) Roshan Singh feigned ignorance about the whole incident and said he would ask for the details and would take action accordingly.
GRP inspector Inderjeet Singh said, "No official complaint has been registered with us. But our cops remain near the booking counter all the time and its impossible that an outsider could have stolen the money. It seemed to be an internal matter."
According to the sources, "It is suspected that the money, which was found later, has been collected by the employees and officials themselves to escape from the police action and save their jobs. The whole incident is also linked with bookies who lost money due to loss of India in Cricket World Cup semifinal against Australia."
