‘Fraud’ by agents: Depositors stage protest at Sirhind Post Office

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, February 23

A big group of agitated depositors gathered outside the Sirhind Post Office today because they had been ‘duped’ of crores of rupees by two saving agents. They demanded the recovery of their money and claimed that the police failed to nab the fraudsters despite repeated complaints.

While talking to The Tribune, cheated depositors, Jitender Singh, Sukhwant Singh, Avtar Singh and Sushil Kumar, among others, said that post office agents Mandeep Rana and Kiran Bala, residents of Sirhind, duped them of a 'lot of money'. They said they had opened saving accounts at the post office with these agents and paid them every month for deposits into their post office accounts. They said the agents never deposited the amount but rather returned their pass books with fake stamps from the post office.

The complainants said the scam came to light when they went to the post office to withdraw the money after the completion of the scheme, but were told that there was no money in their accounts, adding that when they showed the passbooks of the post office with the stamps, they were told that the stamps were fake and no money had been deposited. They said complaints were made to the police and higher officials of the post office, but to no avail.

Priya, an employee at the post office, said the department has been notified of the matter and the licence of Kiran Bala's agency has been cancelled, adding that Mandeep Rana's licence is also in the process of being cancelled.

When contacted, agents Mandeep Rana and Kiran Bala said they had employed a person who had been handling the deposit work for several years, and the depositors used to deposit money with him, adding that they were not aware if the money was being deposited or not. They said that they lodged a complaint with the police against their employee when the matter came to light.

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