Bills worth lakhs passed for movement of fake army units: CBI

The CBI today booked an official of defence accounts and a private person for siphoning off over Rs 53.63 lakh in 2016 by processing forged bills showing movement of an army unit which never took place, officials said here.
The forgery was detected only next year when a similar bill of over Rs one crore was submitted for the movement of a different fake army unit, the sources said.
It was alleged in the complaint submitted on behalf of the Office of Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Northern Command) that Record Clerk Ashwani Kumar and Satish Kumar, a private person swindled the amount in 2016 causing loss to the government exchequer.

The racketeers allegedly claimed that a new unit 604SIU has arrived from Guwahati in the audit jurisdiction of Jammu office of Controller of Defence Accounts, the complaint said.
It said the duo submitted three bills worth over Rs 53.63 lakh supported by audit formalities and an authority letter purportedly issued by the Guwahati office of the Controller of Defence Accounts.
The bills were submitted in the fag end of March 2016 when there is huge rush of bill clearance pertaining to various grants of army units as a result these bills were passed in possible collusion with some officials of the Controller of Defence Accounts, it alleged.

The complaint alleged that the public fund account as depicted on these bills was of a Jammu Bank and the amount was requested to be transferred to the said account.

In March 2017, bills of similar nature in the name of a fake Army unit worth over Rs one crore were detected and the payment was averted. The scrutiny of all such bills took place and alleged swindling by the officials of Jammu was detected.
When the officials reached the State Bank of India, it was revealed that the account number given for transferring the amount belonged to one Satish Kumar and not to public fund account of the unit, it said.

When officials approached Kumar he agreed to refund it but only refunded Rs 44.17 lakh which was deposited in the government account, it alleged.
"The balance amount of Rs 9.46 lakh and interest generated of Rs 2.04 lakh totalling to Rs 11.5 lakh is loss to government exchequer," it said.
Based on the complaint, the CBI has booked Ashwani Kumar, Record Clerk in the office of Assistant Controller of Defence Accounts, Jammu and Satish Kumar under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under Ranbir Penal Code and provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act.