The Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against five Regional Provident
Fund Commissioners in connection with the alleged embezzlement of about Rs 70
crore of the provident fund (PF) of the employees of Chaitanya Group of
Institutions in Andhra Pradesh.
CBI’s
Superintendent of Police H Venkatesh said that the agency’s anti-corruption
bureau has filed the FIR against P Sudhakar Babu, Additional PF Commissioner,
Bangalore and regional PF commissioners GR Suchindernath, KS Arya, A Ravi
Kumar, and SS Shastry.
Officials
of the Vigilance Wing of the PF Department have also been named in the FIR.
According
to the FIR, in March 2006 the five PF officers, as part of a nation-wide
programme to check irregularities relating to PF contributions in large
institutions, conducted raids at various locations of Chaitanya Group of
Institutions in the state and allegedly found discrepancies in depositing the
PF of about Rs 70 crore with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Chaitanya Group
was allegedly deducting PF from salaries of about 4,500 employees but was
either not crediting it to their PF accounts, or was crediting lesser amounts,
or crediting PF accounts of only a few employees.
However,
instead of initiating the process of recovering the outstandings due, and
penalising Chaitanya Group, the five PF commissioners allegedly made a deal
with the educational institution and an alleged settlement was reached.
Not only
did they not take any action, the PF officers also returned all the proof of
the alleged irregularities that they seized, in the form of documents and
account statements. “Not a single rupee of Chaitanya employees’ PF dues was
recovered and the PF Commissioners closed the matter,’’ the FIR stated.
When
allegations about the deal with Chaitanya Group surfaced, the vigilance wing of
the PF Department took up investigation of the case.
The FIR
states that instead of conducting a bonafide and fair investigation, the
vigilance officers chose to dilute and misrepresent the case by concealing the
financial irregularities and amount involved.
They
recommended minor penalty against the erring officers and no action against
Chaitanya Group for their alleged irregularities. The CBI is also looking at
the possible role of vigilance officers at EPFO, New Delhi.
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