Unearthing Rs seven crore scam in Karnana Multipurpose Agricultural Service Society Limited in Karnana village of SBS Nagar district, Punjab Vigilance Bureau has arrested five persons in the matter. The Bureau has registered a case against seven officers or employees at VB police station at Jalandhar.
Bureau spokesperson said that during the investigation into the accounts of the society, it has came to light that a scam to the tune of Rs 7,14,07,596.23 has been committed in connivance with officers or employees of the said cooperative society.
Spokesperson said that there are about 1,000 account holders or members in the said society, which has been running an Indian Oil petrol pump, tractor and agricultural implements to plough a large amount of agricultural land. Apart from this, the said society also sells fertilizers and pesticides to the farmers and a total of six employees are working in different places in the said society.
“After investigating the matter, it came to light that NRIs of village Karnana and the people of this village got the FDRs worth crores of rupees in the name of above society. Secretary of the said Sabha Inderjit Dhir, who has also been the cashier earlier, embezzled crores of rupees by setting limits etc on the said FDRs in collusion with the president Randhir Singh and the present cashier Harpreet Singh,” said the spokesperson.
Spokesperson said that during the checking of the records by the technical team from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020, the loans taken by the members of the sabha and deposits of the members amounted to Rs 7,14,07,596.23 were found to be embezzled.
Giving the details of this scam, the spokesperson informed that during the investigation, it was also found that two computers were installed in the society by the secretary Inderjit Dhir, out of which one system was to show the records to the members so as to satisfy them about the entries of their deposits. On the second computer, it was found that the secretary used to feed the data according to the amount of fraud committed to get verification from the audit team and other officials.
On the basis of investigation of this scam, it has been established that former secretary of the society Inderjit Dhir, Harpreet cashier, Randhir Singh former president, Sukhwinder Singh vice president, Ravinder Singh committee member, Mahinder Lal committee member and Kamaljit Singh committee member (all residents of village Karnana) have in connivance with each other committed a fraud to the tune of Rs 7,14,07,596.23 in the above said society.
Spokesperson said that in this regard, a case dated August 29, 2022, against Randhir Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ravinder Singh, Mahinder Lal and Kamaljit Singh — all residents of Karnana village, and others, under sections 406, 409, 420, 465, 468, 471, 477-A, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under sections 13(1), 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, has been registered at Vigilance Bureau, Police Station Jalandhar.