Post office scam: Two in CBI custody

According to CBI officials,a complaint was registered at its Gandhinagar office on September 18 against the postmaster of Chemical Industries Sub-Post Office,Dilip Sulakhe,and three officials — Dinesh Prajapati,Anila Makwana and Dilip Darji. The complaint also named agents Usha Shah,her son Ripal Shah,Ankit Shah and two other agents.

On September 27,CBI was granted five-day remand of the two main accused,Ripal Shah and Ankit Shah,who were arrested on September 23.

As per the complaint filed at the CBI office by the Postal Department,58 SCSS accounts were closed in records and the final payments made to depositors.

“Thereafter,the accused activated these accounts in connivance with a few postal officials and withdrew the balance amount again and deposited the same in around eight savings accounts they had opened on the same day. This avoided the cash flow detection by the Head Post Office in Fatehgunj. These amounts were subsequently withdrawn by cheques,thus causing a loss of Rs 2,56,82,497 to the exchequer from the SCSS accounts,” the department said in its complaint.

Preliminary investigation showed Ripal Shah was handling all the work related to investments through his mother Usha,an authorised postal agent. “Shah made his employee Ankit to work on official computers at the post office for committing the fraud,” said a CBI official.

Earlier,an internal inquiry by the postal department had pegged the fraud at Rs 61 lakh. Later,the figure rose to Rs 2.18 crore and licences of five agents were cancelled last week.