Two postal department employees siphon off Rs 1.37 crore in Karnataka, one ends life fearing arrest: Police

The accused forged documents of 293 beneficiaries of government schemes and swindled money for almost a year and the fraud came to light during an audit by the postal department.

Fearing arrest, Trishul ended his life but his role was discovered after the probe. (Representational)

Two postal department employees allegedly siphoned off Rs 1.37 crore and one of them, fearing arrest, died by suicide in Karnataka’s Yadgir district, according to the police. The deceased, Trishul, and his colleague, Sardar Naik, worked at the Balabatti sub-branch and cheated nearly 293 beneficiaries of government schemes, said the police.

A police officer said around 8,000 to 10,000 beneficiaries of 60-70 villages that come under the Balabatti sub-branch get money credited to their accounts under various government schemes. Trishul and Naik, employed as a postal assistant and postal inspector respectively, allegedly conspired to forge documents of 293 of these beneficiaries who were mostly illiterates and had not linked their mobile number with bank accounts.

Using identity cards and photos of their friends, the accused opened eight post office bank accounts, the police said. They brought several SIM cards using the same documents and swindled the money for almost a year, added the police. A lot of beneficiaries of the Sandhya Suraksha scheme, an old-age pension scheme, were cheated this way, according to the police.

The police said that the accused also borrowed the user credentials of at least seven of their unsuspecting colleagues to access the India Post Payments Bank to carry out transactions.

The incident came to light in a recent audit done by the postal department and it approached the Gogi police station with a complaint. On June 11, a first information report (FIR) was registered and the probe pointed towards Trishul and Naik. Fearing arrest, Trishul ended his life but his role was discovered after the probe.

On the day Trishul died, Naik left the village and is yet to be traced, police said. Superintendent of police (SP) of Yadgir district CB Vedamurthy said that special teams have been formed to nab the accused.

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