BDO, 2 others booked in PS pension scam

YAVATMAL: Wani police booked the block development officer and two other employees of panchayat samiti on Friday in the much-talked about pension scam involving Rs 32 lakh.PSO Sudhakar Ambhore said the accounts office of Yavatmal ZP Vishwas Dakhore had lodged a complaint with the police alleging that three employees had embezzled the government fund to the tune of Rs 31.87 lakh by producing fake pension bills. Criminal offences were registered against BDO Vijay Lokhande, accounts officer Murlidhar Kathane and clerk Avinash Balki under sections 409,420,465, 467,468,471 and 34 of IPC. Ambhore said the trio was absconding. Balki had allegedly prepared a bogus pension bill and got it sanctioned through the accounts officer and BDO during 2010-11 and the amount was credited to four savings accounts in the Wani branch of Bank of Maharashtra. The account holders were SK Thakre, VN Bhandekar, NG Pawade and Rupali Jadhav. The amount was withdrawn from ATM from time to time.During scrutiny of accounts, the branch manager detected the fraud and informed the Wani PS BDO and Yavatmal ZP CEO.Lokhande, instead of taking legal action against Balki, asked to repay the amount pocketed by him. Balki repaid the amount and the matter was closed.When ZP CEO Naval Kishor Ram came to know about the scam, he set up a panel under senior accounts officer who conducted an inquiry and seized relevant documents. The CEO then directed the BDO to suspend the clerk and the accounts officer which he did. Meanwhile, the commissioner of Amravati also sent a team to Wani to conduct a probe. After that, he directed the CEO to suspend BDO. Though suspended, no police complaint was filed till Friday. Finally, the CEO sent his accounts officer to Wani police station who filed an FIR against Lokhande, Kathane and Balki.