BHAWANIPATNA : An 11-member team of CBI officials investigated the embezzlement of postal insurance deposits worth around `1 crore in Kalahandi district on Friday. The deputy post master of Bhawanipatna head post office Kabiraj Harijan alias Kabiraj Durga has been placed under suspension for allegedly misappropriating postal insurance deposits.
Superintendent of the post office Padmalochan Das said a letter has been sent to the tehsil office not to allow sale or transfer of property belonging to Kabiraj or any of his family members. Police are on the lookout for Kabiraj, who is absconding. The CBI team seized some relevant documents from the head post office and questioned one of Kabiraj’s brothers on the fraud. While the fraud is pegged at `1 crore, sources said the amount might be much higher.
Sources said Kabiraj mostly misappropriated funds in postal life insurance schemes. When the insurance schemes matured, he paid the maturity amount to the insurance certificate holders in cash. At the same time, he issued cheques mentioning the amount which was two to five times higher than the maturity value in the name of his relatives. Since he mentioned the correct amount in the official files, no one suspected foul and as he was the cheque issuing authority, Kabiraj never faced any problem in issuing the high-value cheques. Sources added that in one such case, he paid the maturity value of an insurance scheme of `30,500 to the insurance holder and issued a cheque of `16 lakh in the name of his brother.
The fraud continued for the last three years and it came to light following three audits by the State Government. While customers were in no way affected by the fraud, it was the postal department and the State exchequer that was affected, sources added.
MODUS OPERANDI
Kabiraj mostly misappropriated funds in postal life insurance schemes. When the insurance schemes matured, he paid the maturity amount to the insurance certificate holders in cash
He issued cheques mentioning amount which was two to five times higher than the maturity value in the name of his relativesIn one such case, he paid the maturity value of an insurance scheme of J30,500 to the insurance holder and issued a cheque of J16 lakh in the name of his brother