A pension scam amounting to ₹43 crore and involving 90 dead state government employees has been unearthed in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district.
The state government has filed cases against 97 people, including some officers of the treasury department of the district, after conducting an inquiry.
The probe, which was kept under wraps, became public knowledge a few days after the death of assistant treasurer Sandeep Kumar Srivastava, one of the alleged scamsters, on October 19.
“Srivastava was called by a special investigation team (SIT), but his health deteriorated during interrogation. He was rushed to a hospital in Allahabad, where he died of cardiac arrest the same day. The news spread in the district a few days after his death that he was involved in the scam,” said an administrative officer who didn’t want to be identified.
The officer said the funds embezzlement was traced back to 2014, but the maximum amount was withdrawn after 2018.
“Over 90 new bank accounts were opened by treasury officers, sometimes in collusion with family members of the dead pensioners who submitted fake life certificates. The pension money — sometimes more than the actual amount — was transferred from the treasury to those accounts electronically. Later on, the scamsters withdrew the money and used it to build houses or buy costly cars,” he said. “Some of the family members of dead pensioners have locked their houses and run away.”
Sources said the scam was first detected in 2015 and two accountants of the treasury department in Chitrakoot, Rajesh Kumar and Manish Kumar, were suspended. However, no further inquiry was conducted.
Sandeep Kumar Verma, a circle officer who is heading the SIT, said: “Many people didn’t know that bank accounts had been opened in their names and the treasury officers were using them. We are also probing how many account holders were operating their accounts themselves.”
He said their investigation was focused on how the accounts were credited with more money than the actual pension amount, how the fake life certificates were procured and who approved them.