Five get RI for pension fund fraud

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 25. The Vigilance Special Judge, Mr. N.K. Balakrishnan, has sentenced five former employees of the Karthikappally Sub-Treasury to three years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.5,000 each for misappropriation of pension funds amounting to Rs.1,754.

The accused are Ramachandran Pillai, former peon, Muraleedharan Pillai, former junior assistant, P. Narayana Pillai, former senior superintendent, J. Manian, former junior treasurer and Abdul Rasheed, former treasurer. In default of payment of the fine, they would have to undergo imprisonment for another year.

The case was charged by the Vigilance Anti-Corruption Bureau, Alappuzha, on the basis of a complaint filed by Ms. L. Savithri Amma, a retired Government LP School teacher. The prosecution case was that the accused conspired to defraud two months' pension due to the complainant, amounting to Rs.1,754.

Ms. Savithi Amma had been drawing her pension from the Karthikappally Sub-Treasury functioning at Haripad. While she had been drawing her pension directly earlier, in September, 1989, she joined the Pension Treasury Savings Bank (PTSB) and started drawing her pension by cheque.

On March 4, 1992, she went to the Sub-Treasury for withdrawing her pension for February and March, 1992. But she could not do so as she was told that her name was not mustered during January, 1992, and that the amount due to her had not been credited in the PTSB passbook due to this.

Ms. Savithri Amma left the Sub-Treasury after withdrawing only the amount then available to her credit. At that time, she was planning to leave for Meerut along with her daughter who was staying there. So she asked the second accused, Narayana Pillai, whether she could get her pension by money order.

Narayana Pillai told her to submit an application to the Sub- Treasury office for changing the scheme. She was also asked to furnish the address to which the money order should be sent. According to the prosecution, the five accused forged a bill in the name of Savithri Amma and used it to defraud Rs.1,754, which was her pension for February and March, 1992.

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