Rs 50 Lakh Postal Fraud; Hands of Staff Suspected

Karimnagar: The postal department has unearthed a Rs.50 lakh fraud orchestrated by its employees, who created fake passbooks in the names of customers at the Begumpet sub-branch post office in Ramgiri mandal of Peddapalli district.

Gundu Srinivas opened an account in the name of his daughter under the Sukanya Samrudhi Yojana in 2015 and deposited a total of Rs.13,83,589. On Friday, he visited the post office to check the balance and found that Rs.2 lakh had been deducted from the account.

He lodged a complaint with sub-postmaster Shiva Kumar. Upon investigating, Shiva Kumar contacted several customers and found that many of them possessed fake passbooks. Suspecting the involvement of postal employees in the fraud, he reported the issue to his superiors.

B. Ravi Kumar, superintendent of the Warangal division, who also oversees the Peddapalli head post office, informed Deccan Chronicle that the issue of fake passbooks had come to their attention. He has ordered an inquiry into matter.

It will take some time to determine the total number of customers affected, identify the employees involved in the scam, and ascertain the amount of money diverted.