Agra: A Special CBI Court in Ghaziabad on Friday sentenced Ved Prakash Pandey, the former sub-postmaster of Post Office Beg Muzaffar Khan in Agra, to three years' imprisonment for misappropriating Rs 15.27 lakh from the accounts of 51 public depositors, IANS reported, citing a CBI official. The court held Pandey guilty of cheating and imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on him. Nation Press also reported the sentencing on Friday, putting the amount at Rs 15.27 lakh siphoned from 51 depositors.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

3 yearsimprisonment for former sub-postmaster Ved Prakash Pandey
Rs 15.27 lakhmisappropriated from depositors' accounts
51public depositors affected
Rs 25,000penalty imposed by the special CBI court

How the fraud worked, according to the CBI

The CBI registered the case on December 17, 2008, and filed a chargesheet against Pandey on September 30, 2009; Friday's sentencing marked the culmination of trial proceedings that lasted almost two decades, the agency said. According to the CBI, 51 depositors opened MIS and TDS accounts at Post Office B.M. Khan, Agra, and entrusted the initial amount to Pandey, who issued them new passbooks bearing account numbers, with the entry of the deposited amount under his signature.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

The accused recorded the details of the deposits only in the passbooks and the ledgers, and not in the remaining documents — including the list of transactions and the daily account summary through which each day's credit and debit details are sent to the Head Office and reconciled — the CBI said. In this way, the accused dishonestly misappropriated funds amounting to Rs 15.27 lakh, causing wrongful loss to the postal department and corresponding gain to himself, according to the agency.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

What is solid

  • A special CBI court in Ghaziabad sentenced former Agra sub-postmaster Ved Prakash Pandey to three years' imprisonment and a Rs 25,000 penalty after holding him guilty of cheating (IANS; Nation Press).
  • The CBI case was registered on December 17, 2008, a chargesheet was filed on September 30, 2009, and the fraud involved Rs 15.27 lakh from 51 depositors at Post Office B.M. Khan, Agra (IANS).

What is only claimed

  • The detailed account of how the deposits were recorded only in passbooks and ledgers is the CBI's case as reported by IANS; the reports do not record a response from Pandey to the sentencing.

The verdict closes one of the older postal-fraud trials from the Agra region. In a separate case reported in the same IANS dispatch, a CBI court in Lucknow had on October 12 sentenced two postal officials of the Sub Post Office in Kunda, Pratapgarh, in a bribery case.