Vigilance Bureau arrests sacked security supervisor in fake recruitment case at Punjabi University in Patiala

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 28

The Vigilance Bureau has arrested a sacked security supervisor Rupinder Singh in a fake recruitment case at Punjabi University, Patiala. The security supervisor has been accused of embezzling lakhs of rupees by recruiting his son who was settled abroad and his domestic help. The security supervisor was drawing salary on his behalf.

The scam came to light in 2023, following which, Punjabi University conducted an investigation and handed over the matter to the Vigilance Bureau. During the probe, evidence of embezzlement by security supervisor Rupinder Singh, now dismissed, came to light and a case was registered against him on August 2, earlier this month.

During the investigation, it was found that from 2011 to 2021, Punjabi University had hired security guards and sanitation workers through the contractor system through e-tender and manual system. A committee was formed by the university vice-chancellor to fill the vacancies. The chairman was the Dean Academic Affairs, while the registrar, finance officer, security officer and in-charge campus maintenance were members. On the recommendation of this committee and approval given by the Vice-Chancellor, an agreement was signed with five firms.

According to the Vigilance investigation, Rupinder Singh, the security supervisor, himself filled up the forms for the recruitment of his son Gurpreet Singh and the woman who worked as a cleaner at his house and got both of them recruited. The security supervisor himself used to fix the duty points and time limits of the security personnel in the daily duty or raw register and get the signatures of the employees. On the basis of which, he entered the attendance of these security personnel in the government register of Punjabi University and sent it to the concerned firms.

Arvinder Singh, a whistle-blower and security guard, claimed that the security office used two attendance registers—one for temporary and another for final attendance. He alleged that a number of individuals who had not worked at the university were marked present in the final attendance register.

How the embezzlement was done?

According to the Vigilance, Rupinder Singh’s son Gurpreet Singh had gone abroad in 2015, while Kuldeep Kaur was less educated and worked as a cleaner at his house. Rupinder Singh used to give Kuldeep Kaur Rs 1,000 in lieu of marking attendance raw register at the university. Rupinder had drawn a total amount of Rs 2,56,624 on the name of Kuldeep Kaur for about 25 months from December 2019 to September 2021 and a total amount of Rs 6,07,448 was drawn on the name of Gurpreet Singh for about 65 months from September 2015 to June 2021. According to the details of Kuldeep Kaur’s bank account, a total of Rs 1,84,994 for 19 months and a total amount of Rs 6,37,615 for 69 months were found to have been transferred to Gurpreet’s bank accounts.

Embezzlement of more than Rs 8 lakh

According to the Vigilance investigation, security supervisor Rupinder Singh, misusing his position, prepared documents related to the recruitment of his son and the woman working as a domestic help. He signed in the daily duty register and sent the attendance reports to the firms under his own signature and himself withdrew the total amount of Rs 8,22,609 transferred to their accounts by the firms as salary.