15 officials charged with siphoning off Rs 75.02 lakh

PUNE: Fifteen government employees — two officers from the social welfare department and 13 from the state treasury office — have been chargesheeted for withdrawing Rs 75.02 lakh from the treasury against bogus bills.
The crime branch filed the chargesheet on behalf of the government in the court of S.M. Shembole on Wednesday.
According to information provided by government officials, the transactions took place on the basis of bogus bills between March 1982 and December 1986.Vijay Raje (a resident of Yerwada), cashier in the department of social welfare, and special officer Mahadev Sonawane (Mohol, Solapur), with the help of another state employee, submitted bogus bills and documents to the treasury office and collected the amount.
Thirteen officials at the treasury in charge of bill scrutiny have also been chargesheeted. They are: Bhaskar Joshi, Prakash Pandit, Shankar Jambhle, Bhau Kamble, Ruben Barase, Sudha Sohoni, Sangeeta Sonarikar, Prakash Deshpande, Mohan Hajare, Usha Bale, Dyandeo Dhumal, Subhada Punde and Bashir Tamboli.
The two officers from the social welfare department have been charged with making forged entries to give false sanction orders to grant scholarships worth Rs 57.50 lakh and Rs 17.51 lakh and then encashed the same.