The fraud revealed misappropriation of around Rs 1 lakh from accounts
An employee with the Indian postal department was convicted, by judicial magistrate (first class) Sanjeev Sardar on Friday, in connection with misappropriation of funds collected as recurring deposits of account holders. The convict has been sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1,000.
The account holders were mostly women from marginal income groups and around Rs 1 lakh was siphoned in total, from various accounts. The convict has been identified as Sanjay Nivrutti Chakale (50) resident of Laxminagar at Navi Sangvi. The first information report was filed at Chatushrungi police station in 2008.
Assistant superintendent of postal department Ganapat Rajaram Ute had filed the complaint after the fraud was revealed during inspections. Chakale was serving at the Savitribai Phule Pune University post office as a clerk . After receiving complaints from account holders, Ute visited the office and inspected the registers. He found that there were differences in the amount noted on passbooks and registers. The accused had allegedly accepted the amount from the account holders and mentioned the same in their passbooks, but deliberately did not record it in the office registers.
Assistant public prosecutor Sandhya Kale said, "A departmental inquiry was also held against the accused in which it was proved that he had misappropriated the fund collected via recurring deposits. We examined six witnesses to prove the guilt."
She added, "We insisted that the court grant maximum punishment since it was the money of citizens."
