Loot of Rs. 50 crores through Illegal transfer of money
of Students’ scholarship to the account of fake beneficiaries by committing fraud and forgery
by Banks operating in Odisha in
connivance with a coterie of State Govt. officials, Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited and their agents
Dear friends
it is the
routine affair of the Govt. of
Odisha to release advertisement every year
inviting on-line application from
the students of +2, +3 students of different colleges, Post-graduate students of
Universities and students of
professional and technical educational
institutions to apply for students scholarship. As per the information obtained
through RTI, since 2010, the State
Govt. has engaged three private
companies like Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited, CSM
Technology, TQM service for verifying and processing the application of the
students to get scholarship. These
agencies prepare the list of deserving students and send it to the Govt. for
release of money directly to their account through on-line Banking transfer
system.
But since last five years from 2010-15, many fake and
undeserving students are being sanctioned students’ scholarships through
forgery and fraudulent means by these
private companies by preparing false documents through their agents engaged
across the state in association with corrupt bank officers. This is a racket
operating in Odisha to swindle away Scholarship money through Banks and corrupt
officials of Higher Education Department.
This issue came to limelight when an amount of Rs. 20,000.00 was
released each to the account of three +3 students of Raghunath College ,
Deuli and P.N. College, Bolagada of
Khurda district and withdrawn on same day within 15 minutes of the deposit of the money on 15.1.15.
How it was exposed
?
As per the complaint filed by these three students
namely Surya Prasad Sahu of P.N. College, Bolagada, Sagar Kumar Debta and Manas
Kumar Singh of Raghunath College, Deuli
to the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary, Govt. of Odisha and FIR lodged on 11.4.15,
one day, an agent named Bibhuti Bhusan
Lenka of Khurda district close to these students came to their house
and told them to ensure availability of
scholarship, if they will provide their documents, Bank Account no. opened in Punjab National Bank, Talatumba Branch.
They got delighted and handed over all the documents. After few days, the agent
came again on 14.1.15 and persuaded them for ATM Card and PIN No. On 15.1.15,
these students saw the message in mobile about deposit of Rs. 20,000.00 in each
account and withdrawal of the same within few minutes. But the agent gave them
Rs. 500/- and took away all the money threatening them to keep it in
secret.
After sharing this information with the parents and
apprehending fraud and forgery in bank transaction, these three students
formally filed complaint to Chief Minister, Odisha, Secretary, Department of
Higher Education and Secretary, Department of Finance, Govt. of Odisha and
Directorate of Treasuries and Inspection, Odisha, Bhubaneswar seeking an
enquiry into it.
Then one parent Sri Ramesh Ch. Sahu pursued the case and tried to unearth the truth. He
formally filed RTI Application dated 3.2.15 to the PIO, Dept. of Higher
Education giving account number of three
students ( Surya Prasad Sahu, Ac No-
2774001500001241, Sagar Kumar Debata, Ac. No.- 2774001500008174), Maas Kumar
Singh, Ac.No.-2774001500003337)
seeking the information whether
the meritorious scholarship has been transferred to their accounts. On 2.4.15, the PIO replied
that no amount has been transferred to these accounts.
This
information created a lot of confusion
among the students and the whole episode shrouded in mystery.
However, Sri Ramesh Ch. Sahu filed another RTI Application
dated 4.4.15 to the PIO, office of Directorate of Treasuries and Inspection, Bhubaneswar seeking information about details of enquiry conducted and action taken on complaint filed by these students.
The response of the PIO dated 10.4.15 came with
attachment of series of correspondence made between Directorate of Treasury and
Inspection, Bhubaneswar and Punjab
National Bank, Bhubaneswar. It was mentioned in the letter that “ on
verification of the data generated electronically by the Central Electronic Processing Cell (
CePC) located at the Directorate of Treasuries and Inspection, Odisha on dated 14.1.15. It is seen that the data
files does not contain these
accounts number for credit as
destination account”. However
the Directorate wrote a letter to
Punjab National Bank, station square , Bhubaneswar seeking an enquiry about it.
on
11.4.2014, the Punjab National Bank
wrote a letter to Directorate of
Treasury that “ we received
large number of ECS credits from
RBI every day and more than 50%
account numbers mentioned
in the RECS file contains wrong account number by omission/ wrong feeding of single digit/
last digit as zero. We match the name
of the account holder with the account number and name in the RECS
file received from RBI site and
give credit to the actual
beneficiary by rectifying the single digit.”
As per Banking
norm, in case of any kind of
mismatch of account number, the Banks are required to return the transaction to the RBI
and the same is returned back to the Central Electronic Processing
cell as failure payment electronically.
But, the question arises, how the Punjab National Bank itself
suo moto rectified the account
number and deposited the money
in another account
without returning the money to RBI. It is proved that the senior officers
of the said Bank are involved in forgery
and in connivance of with frauds. They have facilitated a number of
illegal transaction and misappropriated huge money meant for students’
scholarship.
It has also
come to our notice from some reliable sources that not only Punjab National
Bank but other Banks are also involved in this forgery and misappropriation of
Students’ scholarship fund in Odisha.
While looking at magnitude of forgery and malpractice
by OKCL and Banks through their agents, we have a considered view of loot of
Rs. 50 crore from state exchequer through fraudulent means.
Steps taken by Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan
1. On
29.9.16, a Press meet was organised at
Lohia Bhawan to expose magnitude of crores of fraud and forgery by Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited in connivance with corrupt Bank officials and
Higher Education Dept. in distribution of Medhabruti.
2. On
30.9.16, Mass Media highlighted the news and made good coverage of the issue.
3. On
3.9.16, a three member delegation of Pradip Pradhan, Sudhir Mohanty and Sri
Ramesh Ch. Mohanty met Ombudsman of
Reserve Bank of India and filed complaint
seeking enquiry into Banking fraud
by Punjab National Bank.
4. On
4.10.16, a five member delegation
of Pradip Pradhan, Sudhir Mohanty and
Sri Ramesh Ch. Mohanty, Ranjan Kumar Das and Sachikant Pradhan filed complaint
in CBI seeking equiry into banking fraud
and loot of 50 crore with involvement of nationalised banks.
Updated
by
Pradip
Pradhan
M-9937843482
Date-
5.10.16
