By Bahadurjit Singh-
ROPAR: A case of alleged fraud of Rs. 1.6 crore with SDM office of Chamkaur Sahib has come to light. Punjab Police have registered a case against three persons in this regard at Chamkaur Sahib Police station. The case has been registered against Ramesh Sahota a resident of Jalandhar, Paramjit Singh of Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra and Oma Shankar, an employee of National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) under Section 420,465,467,468,471, and 120B of IPC on the complaint of Chamkaur Sahib SDM Punit Goel.
He alleged that that Rs 1.6 crore have been withdrawn from a bank account of his office by the accused by forging his signatures. According to SDM an amount of Rs 4,44,86,040 were received by his office in 2009 from NHAI for disbursal of payments against land acquisition meant for widening of roads. The amount was deposited in the State Bank of Patiala branch at Chamkuar Sahib.
Rs. 95,49,688 had been lying in the account after disbursal of claims since then, said the complainant. However it was noticed recently that this amount along with interest incurred upon it had been withrdrawn by Sahota and Paramjit using two cheques belonging to two cheque books issued in the name of SDM office. Two cheque books were also found to be missing from the office, said SDM.
The trail of investigation however led to police to branches of Central Bank of India in Sector 25 of Panchkula and State Bank of Patiala branch at Talwandi Kotan in Rajasthan. Sahota withdrew Rs 80,50,500 using forged cheque through Panchkula bank and Paramjit got Rs 25,50,465 transferred to his account at Rajasthan.
Oma Shankar has been name in the complaint as accused as he was in the possession of all cheque books, SDM said.
