VELLORE: Four persons, including two workers at Aavin (Vellore-Tiruvannamalai District Cooperative Milk Producers Society), were arrested on Monday for allegedly siphoning off around `53 lakh.
The District Crime Branch (DCB) caught a retired employee of Aavin L Rajamurthy (59) of Kangeyanallur, along with Vellore Aavin marketing officer D Sripathi (56) and office assistant P Parimala Devan (49) and a relative of a milk agent D Sudhakar (34) of Kalendra village, near Vaniyambadi in connection with the case.
Rajamurthy was retained as a consolidate worker after he retired in 2013 as cashier in Aavin. He was entrusted with the work of collecting the money from milk agents in Jolarpet, Vaniyambadi and Tirupattur and deposit in Aavin’s bank account, said the sources in Aavin.
The senior officials of Aavin came to know about the misappropriation of fund to the tune of `53 lakh a month ago. The departmental inquiry revealed that the cash collected from the milk agents in Vaniyambadi, Tirupattur and Jolarpet from June to October in 2013 had not been deposited in Aavin’s account.
Though the records in the head office in Sathuvachari showed the amounts were paid to respective account, the account had no cash, said the officials.
Following this, the Deputy Dairy Registrar of Vellore Aavin N Ramachandran lodged a complaint with the DCB. The police, acting on it, conducted an inquiry and found that Sudhakar had swindled the cash and also produced fake bank receipts to Aavin.
Sudhakar befriended Rajamurthy and said he would help him in collecting the cash from the milk agents and deposit it in the Aavin account.
“Sudhakar had forged the seal of the bank and produced receipts to the officials in Aavin since June last year. He had produced fake bank receipts all this time but the officials had failed to notice it,” said a police officer in the wing.
Rajamurthy was aware about the misappropriation of the cash, the officer added.
The police arrested Sudhakar who confessed to the crime. The police have also arrested Rajamurthy and Sripathi and Devan, suspecting their role in the case.
“The case will be transferred to the Commercial Crime Investigation Wing for further investigation,” said the police officer.