Fraud worth lakhs to fore in Sanghwal village society

Jalandhar, May 18

Residents of Sanghwal and six surrounding villages are in for a major shock as deposits and loan returns totalling lakhs of rupees in the recent past are not reflected in the account of the Sanghwal Agriculture and Multi-Purpose Society.

Many villagers, who had lodged their complaint in the matter, were today heard by two assistant registrars and auditing team sent by the Department of Cooperative at the bank. The villagers alleged that while the bank staff kept entering the details of loan returns and deposits in their passbooks, they did not actually deposit the amount in their accounts.

Bakshish Singh, a farmer of Gopalpur village, said he had taken a Rs 2-lakh loan and had returned an amount of Rs 2.1 lakh, but there still were dues reflected in his account. Satwinder Singh of Nizamdinpur village said a difference of Rs 45,000 was reflected in his loan amount and returns paid, which actually should have been nil. A farm labourer, Harjinder Pal said he had deposited an amount of Rs 18,000 as his entire loan return, but an outstanding amount of Rs 8,500 was still being shown.

The shock was bigger for Mandeep Kaur who had deposited an amount of Rs 7 lakh and had even got an FDR copy in addition to another deposit of Rs 8 lakh. She found that there was just Rs 1,100 showing against her name.

Akali Adampur MLA Pawan Tinu said despite a complaint by the villagers, nothing much had happened for them. “The Congress leaders in the area are protecting these men appointed during their tenure. Recently, when a society member dared to put a lock on the existing lock so that the erring staff does not take away the records after the incident came to light, he was illegally detained in the police station overnight and was left only after I intervened. I demand that an IAS officer should be appointed to hold an inquiry in the case. Even as Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh claims that halqa in charge system has gone, I have two party in charges in my area who continue to influence the police in all cases, including this one,” he alleged. — TNS