Bhubaneswar: The Writing Department (DOP) under the Ministry of Communication Union on Friday revealed fraud for the song Rs 2.44 Crore has been carried out by Postmaster Lachipeta, Colony Malkangiri and Post Office Bhejangiwada under the Coraput Division.
Overcoming the press, Secretary DOP Vineet Pandey said the two postmasters had been suspended after detection of fraud.
Fraud in Lachipeta and the Malkangiri Colony Post Office have been reported to the CBI and the Investigation Agency has submitted FIR against Postmaster Biswanath Podiami, who was previously responsible for the Malkangiri Coloni Post Office before moving to Lachipeta.
Mana Pujari, Postmaster Branch at the Post Office Bhejagiwada was arrested by the police.
He has also been suspended by the department.
“The CBI and the police have been asked to complete their investigation quickly.
The direction has been issued for the attachment of the properties of the main defendants and their family members,” said Communication DOP.
The official source said Pujari was suspected of transferring RS 35 Lakh from depositors to his Kins account.
Thus Podiami allegedly drawn RS 2.09 Crore from the Depositors account.
Union Communication Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw learned about this issue during the coraput visit on August 21 and has directed officials to complete investigations within 30 days.
Acting on it, DOP completed the department investigation into the Lachipeta post office material.
“Initial investigations in two other cases have been completed.
Detailed investigations are ongoing and will be completed in a month.
Proceedings of the main sentence begins with the main actors,” Pandey said.
He said strict actions would be made to everyone whose weakness had facilitated in carrying out fraud.
Suvendu Swain, Head of Postmaster General, Odisha, said the postmaster committed fraud during the Covid period taking advantage of the situation when physical verification was lacking.
Swain said they had received complaints from five deposits involving Rs 1.25 lakh so far.
“We have asked depositors from three post offices to file their complaints.
We will complete all original claims within 30 days according to the standard operating procedure issued by DOP,” Swain said.