[ Nellie N Manpoong ]
ITANAGAR, Dec 31: The retired veterinary doctor who was swindled out of his money by officials of the Chowkham sub-post office (SO) of the India Post in Namsai district has said he is yet to receive the money he had been sanctioned, on paper, from India Post.
On 3 October, the postal service director of India Post’s Arunachal Pradesh division issued a letter to sanction and restore Rs 45,921 (the maturity value amount) for 13 months in his account, allegedly defrauded by Chowkham SO Sub-Postmaster Ranjana Singh.
However, the victim, Dr RK Varshney, said he is yet to receive the amount in his account.
Dr Varshney has also asked the director of postal services (DPS) Ashoke Pal to note that his RD account was opened for five years but the restoration amount is for only 13 months. In his complaint, he said “the account was closed in 13 months without my permission and therefore, I should not be penalized for the fraud committed by the postal department employee(s).”
He also informed that he has not been paid the principle amount of Rs 4,00,500 of his monthly income savings till date, and requested the DPS to “take into account the interest owed to me from April 8, 2013 to the time when the principle amount is returned to me.”
The only amount he claimed to have received is a partial payment of Rs 3,31,330, out of the capital amount of Rs 7,31,330 in his RD account.
Dr Varshney said the DPS here told him that the office in Arunachal had done everything required and “the rest will be done in the Chief Postmaster General’s (CPMG) office in Shillong” as the DPS here does not have the financial power.
Dr Varshney said he made several attempts to meet the CPMG in Shillong, Meghalaya, to resolve the issue at the earliest, but was unable to.
He also said he has attended the hearings of the case several times, but the accused, Singh, has not attended some of the previous hearings, citing various reasons.
However, she attended the last two hearings, on 17 and 18 December.
Dr Varshney said it felt like there was a deliberate delay in the entire proceedings of the case and restoration of money. He said it takes significant amounts of time and money to travel to Shillong in Meghalaya from his place of residence in Chowkham in Arunachal Pradesh and Mathura in UP repeatedly.
On his complaint, the department of posts said he would be granted TA/DA as a witness to the fraud in the Chowkham SO.
In August 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had also submitted a report citing the names of Singh and one Padam Prasad Sharma of the Chowkham branch as forging documents and signatures of Dr Varshney.
Following the CBI findings, on 17 October, 2017, the CPMG in Shillong had assured Dr Varshney that it was the prime duty of the postal department to restore his money.
Reportedly, there are 28 victims of the Chowkham SO fraud, but only 12 have submitted written complaints because some cases are minor in nature and others have lost faith in the postal administration.
