Bengaluru: Railway official dismissed for cash misappropriation
BENGALURU: A commercial supervisor at the Bengaluru East Railway station who misappropriated ticketing cash to the tune of over Rs 65 lakh spread over several months in 2016 has recently been dismissed from service. A charge-sheet readied by the Railway Police to initiate action against him in a criminal case has been sent to their prosecutor for submission in court.Vincent Terrence, who has put in 36 years of service in the department, was found guilty of misappropriating `65,15,363 of Railway money during a surprise internal audit conducted in May 2017. Railway Commercial Inspector C P V Gupta, Cashier Vasikaran and booking clerk Sanjay Karkate are also facing an inquiry.
“Terrence was able to totally repay `25 lakh but was not able to pay back `40 lakh. The gratuity and pension due to him for 36 years of service works out to `39 lakh. This would be taken by the Railways now that he has been dismissed,” a top Railway source said. Since an internal inquiry of the Commercial section found him guilty of the misappropriation, Terrence has been dismissed, the source said.
The information was confirmed by a top official of the section.
Terrence had also given in writing that he was guilty of the charges against him. Despite being on ‘sick leave’ for many months in 2016, he came to the office daily to collect the cash. The others are guilty of assisting him while the commercial inspector has been found guilty of not keeping track of daily collection receipts.A criminal case has been booked for misappropriation of railway funds under Section 3 (A) of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966. Terrence is Accused No 1.
According to another Railway source, “Terrence never gave us the complete picture of what happened to the cash. The misappropriation has taken place over the course of many months in 2016. He may have intended to repay the money on the sly to the Railways by adding it along with cash that is collected by the station in the coming days. But the demonetisation move could have dealt a big blow to this plan.”