Lid off education scam in Hailakandi
Hailakandi police have unearthed a major scam in the education department running into lakhs of rupees.
The district police zeroed in on the deputy inspector of the schools, Hailakandi, Prafulla Kumar Deb, head clerk in his office, Debabrata Choudhury, and his junior colleague Selim Uddin Barbhuyan for allegedly running a racket that siphoned off over Rs 50 lakh from the government treasury.
The amount was meant for payment of general provident fund, gratuity and pension benefits to several retired teachers.
Deb was picked up by a posse of police officers from his office on Thursday morning in Hailakandi town and later set free after a few hours of intensive interrogation in the town sadar police station.
The two other accused were remanded in police custody till tomorrow to help the CID crack down on the racket.
A senior officer of the district police said the scamsters would divert funds meant for payment of provident fund, gratuity and pension to superannuated teachers to their personal bank accounts.
Several teachers were thus deprived of their retirement benefits at the end of their long service.
The officer said Choudhury confessed to having diverted Rs 25 lakh from the amount that was to be paid for superannuation, to meet his personal expenses.
The district police also seized a car used by the head clerk in course of their investigations.
The officer said the government auditors would soon scrutinise the official papers relating to the disbursal of the huge amount of funds meant for pensioners to assess the scandal and fix the responsibility of the different scamsters involved in this funds swindle.
While investigating this scam, the authorities got whiff of yet another racket in the district school department that aimed at regularising at least 35 middle school teachers’ retention posts.
A preliminary check revealed another racket in the Hailakandi education department that managed to include 35 names in the Retention List, thereby making them temporary teachers.
But the 35 posts were originally meant for regularised teachers of middle schools.
Besides names of some officials of the education department those of some leaders of the ruling Congress and a few “touts” have surfaced as the possible kingpins in this retention scam.
Source: The Telegraph
The district police zeroed in on the deputy inspector of the schools, Hailakandi, Prafulla Kumar Deb, head clerk in his office, Debabrata Choudhury, and his junior colleague Selim Uddin Barbhuyan for allegedly running a racket that siphoned off over Rs 50 lakh from the government treasury.
The amount was meant for payment of general provident fund, gratuity and pension benefits to several retired teachers.
Deb was picked up by a posse of police officers from his office on Thursday morning in Hailakandi town and later set free after a few hours of intensive interrogation in the town sadar police station.
The two other accused were remanded in police custody till tomorrow to help the CID crack down on the racket.
A senior officer of the district police said the scamsters would divert funds meant for payment of provident fund, gratuity and pension to superannuated teachers to their personal bank accounts.
Several teachers were thus deprived of their retirement benefits at the end of their long service.
The officer said Choudhury confessed to having diverted Rs 25 lakh from the amount that was to be paid for superannuation, to meet his personal expenses.
The district police also seized a car used by the head clerk in course of their investigations.
The officer said the government auditors would soon scrutinise the official papers relating to the disbursal of the huge amount of funds meant for pensioners to assess the scandal and fix the responsibility of the different scamsters involved in this funds swindle.
While investigating this scam, the authorities got whiff of yet another racket in the district school department that aimed at regularising at least 35 middle school teachers’ retention posts.
A preliminary check revealed another racket in the Hailakandi education department that managed to include 35 names in the Retention List, thereby making them temporary teachers.
But the 35 posts were originally meant for regularised teachers of middle schools.
Besides names of some officials of the education department those of some leaders of the ruling Congress and a few “touts” have surfaced as the possible kingpins in this retention scam.
Source: The Telegraph
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