Ghaziabad, Oct 23 (IANS) A Special CBI Court in Ghaziabad on Friday sentenced a former sub-postmaster from Agra to three years’ imprisonment for misappropriating Rs 15 lakh from the accounts of 51 public depositors 18 years ago.
Ved Prakash Pandey, the then sub-postmaster, Post Office Beg Muzaffar Khan, Agra, was held guilty of cheating by the Special Court, which also slapped a penalty of Rs 25,000 on him, said a CBI official.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Pandey on September 30, 2009, and his sentencing on Friday marked the culmination of trial court proceedings that lasted almost two decades.
The federal probe agency registered the case in the matter on December 17, 2008, against Pandey.
It was alleged that 51 depositors got their MIS and TDS account opened in Post Office B.M. Khan, Agra and entrusted initial amount to the then sub-postmaster Pandey who issued them new pass books having account numbers.
The pass books contained the entry of the deposited initial amount under the signature of the accused. The accused mentioned the details of deposition of the money in the pass books and the ledgers only and not in any of the remaining documents including the list of transactions and daily account summary vide which the credit and debit details of each day are intimated to the Head Office and reconciled with, the CBI said.
In this way, the accused dishonestly misappropriated the funds amounting to the tune of Rs 15.27 lakh and caused wrongful loss to the postal department and corresponding gain to himself, the CBI said.
Earlier in a separate case, a CBI court in Lucknow convicted and sentenced two postal officials of the Sub Post Office in Kunda, Pratapgarh, in a bribery case.
The court, on October 12, sentenced Suraj Prasad Mishra, a postal assistant, to three years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.
The court sentenced Santosh Kumar Saroj, a sub-postmaster, to six months of imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.
The CBI registered the case on November 30, 2019, against the two postal officials. It was alleged that Saroj and Mishra entered into a criminal conspiracy to demand illegal gratification from a commission agent.
–IANS
rch/uk
