KOCHI: The Kochi unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation's anti-corruption branch (ACB) has registered a case against the postmaster of the Kummanam post office for alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 5.58 lakh.
Ambily Gopinath, currently put off duty as part of the investigation, was charged with the offence following a complaint lodged by the Inspector of Post, Kottayam West sub division.
According to the CBI's FIR, Ambily has been working at the Kummanam post office from November 2008. The irregularities came to light during the passbook verification carried out by the Kottayam West Sub Division mail overseer at the post office last October.
The mail overseer found some passbooks in the possession of Ambily. On verification with the ledger report of the Core Banking Solution Software, a difference in balance was noticed in the passbooks.Subsequently, the postal department launched an internal probe which unearthed further irregularities, the FIR said.
The internal inquiry found five instances of major misappropriation by Ambily. A three-year time deposit (TD) account was opened in the name of one Vijayalakshmi in November 2018. In September that year, she handed over Rs 50,000 to Ambily to open the TD account.
But in the ledger report, the account is seen opened for Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 50,000. In another incident, a savings account was opened in the name of Accamma Chacko for Rs 15,000 in December 2020. However, the deposit was not found in the post office accounts.
Another savings deposit started in the name of Madhavan M K with Rs 9,500 was not accounted for in the branch office accounts.The internal probe also detected the non-accounting of Rs 20,000 deposited in the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana account of Namitha S and Rs 25,000 deposited in the TD account of Kunjumol Sasi.
"There is every possibility of detecting further fraud committed by the accused. Non-accounting to the tune of Rs 5.58 lakh has been detected so far and a suspected TD closure for Rs 2.02 lakh is under inquiry suspecting forgery of signature and closure of the account, as the depositor had denied account closure," stated the complaint submitted to the CBI.
The case is being probed by ACB Inspector Uma VS.
Difference in balance
The irregularities came to light during the passbook verification carried out by the Kottayam West Sub Division mail overseer at the post office last October. The mail overseer found some passbooks in the possession of Ambily.
On verification with the ledger report of the Core Banking Solution Software, a difference in balance was noticed in the passbooks. The internal inquiry found five instances of major misappropriation by Ambily