PATNA: A special vigilance court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on Monday sentenced a woman constable of the Bihar Police to five years’ imprisonment and imposed penalties totalling Rs 16.25 lakh in a 16-year-old case involving alleged irregularities in salary and Assured Career Progression (ACP) payments.
The accused, Baby Kumari, was charged with involvement in irregularities amounting to Rs 7 crore in salary and ACP payments during her posting in Muzaffarpur. On October 5, Special Vigilance Judge Suman Kumar Diwakar found her guilty in the case.
She was subsequently remanded to judicial custody at Shaheed Khudiram Bose Central Jail in Muzaffarpur.
Baby Kumari was accused of involvement in irregularities in the payment of ACP benefits and arrears to police personnel in Muzaffarpur district. She is reportedly a resident of Raghuvar Nagar in Begusarai district. She and Sushil Kumar Choudhary, the then accountant at the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Muzaffarpur, allegedly committed the offences between 2006 and 2010.
A case was registered at Muzaffarpur Town police station by the then Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) after a preliminary investigation found the allegations to be substantiated. The investigating officer filed the chargesheet on September 21, 2012.
Special Public Prosecutor (Monitoring) Krishnadev Sah examined 11 witnesses in the case. He said the then DSP (Headquarters) had lodged an FIR at the Town police station on October 1, 2010. A detailed investigation was subsequently launched at the direction of senior police officers.
Explaining the modus operandi, the investigating officer said Sushil, who was then posted as an accountant in the SSP’s office, would arrange for an external bank employee to prepare the salary bill CD after obtaining approval from senior officials. While retaining the names of the police personnel, he allegedly altered their bank account numbers, replacing them with those of people associated with him, and transferred the money to the substituted accounts.
Sushil allegedly diverted funds to the bank accounts of his wife, Anita Choudhary, and his daughters, including female constables Shakuntala Kumari and Baby Kumari. Baby’s husband, a constable, was killed in an encounter on February 13, 1997.
After becoming suspicious of Sushil’s lifestyle and the large sums of money involved, a bank manager conducted an inquiry and alerted the SSP through a confidential letter. “The SSP subsequently ordered an investigation,” a senior police officer said.
During raids following the exposure of the alleged scam, police found lakhs of rupees hidden under beds and in kitchen containers holding turmeric and coriander. The accused reportedly withdrew cash from ATMs daily and concealed it in their homes.
Searches led to the recovery of jewellery and documents relating to land investments, along with Rs 53 lakh in cash from Shakuntala’s house, Rs 2.40 lakh from Baby Kumari’s house and Rs 84 lakh from Sushil’s house.
On March 6, 2012, the Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) took over the investigation following a court order. The probe revealed that Rs 17 lakh had been transferred to Baby’s account, while Rs 3 crore each had allegedly been transferred to the accounts of Sushil and Shakuntala, taking the total to Rs 7 crore.
The main accused, Sushil, his wife and female constable Shakuntala are facing separate trials before a sessions court.
