CoD to file chargesheets against nine officials

By K.V.Subramanya

BANGALORE, JUNE 18. The Corps of Detective will file chargesheets against nine senior officials of the State Government, six belonging to the Department of Women and Child Development and three to the State Treasury, with whose alleged connivance two non-government organisations of Gudibande in Kolar District had swindled Rs.1.30 crores.

The sleuths of the CoD's Fraud Cell have now completed the investigation into the scam that came to light in 1992 and indicted six Assistant Directors of the Department of Women and Child Development, two Treasury officers and a first division clerk, sources told The Hindu.

Seven separate chargesheets would be now filed against Mr. M.A.Mahadevaiah, Mr. H.C.Puttanagaiah, Mr. Mahadevaiah, Ms. B.Vimala, Ms. M.Vijaya and Ms. K.A.Ponnamma, all of whom had served as Kolar District's Assistant Directors of Women and Child Development Department during 1985-91, Mr. Pathan Rahamathulla and Mr. Anwar Khan, Treasury officers of Gudibande and Mr. K.Adinarayana, First Division Clerk.

The chargesheets would be soon filed before a JMFC Court in Gudibande.

Chargesheets will also be filed against the prime accused, Mr. Doddanarasimha Reddy, who was running the two non-government organisations, Gudibande Gramodhyoga Sangha and Navodhaya Reshme Kaigarike Sangha, according to the sources.

From February 1985 to March 1991, Mr. Reddy had created as many as 215 fake Government orders and had fraudulently obtained Rs.1.30 crores under the Centrally-sponsored scheme for destitute children and working women with the alleged connivance of the officials.

Of the two non-government organisations, one had been de- recognised on a charge of irregularities in 1984 itself by the then Director of Women and Child Development, Ms. Usha Ganesh, and the other one had never been recognised, the sources said.

The tests conducted by the Forensic Science Laboratory revealed that the 215 fake Government orders had been typed from a particular typewriter at the Directorate of Women and Child Welfare in Bangalore, the sources said.

Mr. Reddy had not only created the fake records but had also forged the signatures of the six Assistant Directors

and submitted them to the Treasury. Signatures of the officers who were already transferred too had been forged.

The Treasury officers, who had the attested specimen signatures of the Assistant Directors with them, had not verified the signatures in these orders, which did not tally with the original ones. They had also failed to check whether the orders, challans and bills were genuine, the sources said.

Even the signatures of the office-bearers of the non-government organisations did not tally with the original specimen signatures that were with the Treasury Department. Despite all these, the Treasury officers had "blindly" sanctioned and released Rs.1.30 crores to the non-government organisations. "This proves the connivance of the treasury officers," the sources said.

On the other hand, the Assistant Directors of the Department of Women and Child Development had not collected even one voucher and bill from Mr. Reddy for the Rs.1.30 crores released during 1985 to 1991 under the Department's Head of Account (No. 2235).

The Assistant Directors had not maintained the expenditure accounts which was their "foremost duty" according to Section 235 of the Budget Manual.

The statements pertaining to the funds released to the two organisations were never sent to the Director's office in Bangalore. All these shows that these officials were hand in glove with Mr. Reddy, the sources said.

A case under Section 120 (B) of the IPC (Criminal Conspiracy) has been booked against all the nine officials. The case was investigated by Inspector, Mr. M.Nagaraj under the supervision the DIG (Economic Offences Cell), Mr. H.T.Kishorechandra and the SP (Fraud Cell), Dr. P.Ravindranath.

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