Postmaster dupes subscribers in Jaldhaka and Chumurchi Post Office... swindles more than 70 lakh

KalimNews, Jaldhaka, 7 August 2018: Gagan Rai, sub postmaster of Jaldhaka sub post office in Indo- Bhutan border is absconding after alleged misappropriation of around Rs 70 lakh. Rai allegedly also siphoned off money from another sub post office of his previous posting in Chumurchi.

More than 200 people are duped by the sub postmaster of Jaldhaka Hydel Project sub post office in the district of Kalimpong and Chumurchi sub post office in the district of Jalpaiguri. Both sub post offices are under Jalpaiguri postal division of the West Bengal postal circle and administratively controlled by Mal head post office.

People who had their savings account in the Jaldhaka Hydel Project sub post office were surprised to find their hard earned money gone mysteriously.

One Balbir Mangar a retired police staff lost 12 lakh of his retirement benefit from his account. Indra Bahadur Chhetri who had saved his entire life time savings from a watch repairing and sales shop also is in a dilemma as he found his saving amounting to Rs. 4 lakh is withdrawn without his knowledge. Omnath Bharati lost 6 lakh, Man bahadur Tamang lost 4.3 lakh while Regina Rai lost 1.7 lakh and there are several such stories.

Several hundreds have found that their major portion of the money is withdrawn by the postmaster from their post office savings account and matured amount of term deposit without their knowledge and withdrawal slips with forged signature are deposited. Balbir Manger a retired policeman had deposited Rupees 2 lakh in a fixed deposit scheme of one year and Rupees 10 lakh in fixed deposit scheme of 2 year. He did not make any withdrawal because they were yet to be matured in July 2018 and January 2019. But on verification he found that there is premature withdrawal of his deposit.

On investigation it was found that Gagan Rai the sub postmaster (SPM) of Jaldhaka Hydel Project post office under Mal Post Office did not report to his duty since 28th April 2018. Due to his absence, the normal office work and public service was halted as the post office has only 1 adhoc postman and 1 adhoc maintenance support staff other than the SPM. Absence of Gagan Rai without intimation to his officials was reported at the Jaldhaka Thana on 3rd May by Sima Gurung, Subdivisional Inspector of Mal post office(Duars).

In view of the absence of Gagan Rai, Mal head post office sent Dhiren Burman to the post office on deputation to function as the postmaster of Jaldhaka HP post office. Accordingly Burman joined on 3rd May and after joining his duty on 7th May when Burman was updating the accounts of some subscribers he found that the latest withdrawals were not updated in their respective passbooks and donot tally with the main accounts file and ledger of the post office computer. On enquiry it was found that the amount was not at all withdrawn by the subscribers. On further enquiry of some more passbooks, it was found that the amount of withdrawal did not tally with the passbook and most of the withdrawal forms were overwritten by adding additional amount in another handwriting and some did not have withdrawal slips.

Aloke Kumar Das, Asst superintendent of posts, headquarter Jalpaiguri who visited the post office during a public hearing said that the department had verified 68 doubtful passbooks which were under scanner and found discrepancies. Even some new passbooks deposited by the subscribers were found to be fake as there was no entry of their account number in the post office ledger and the simple villagers were in a belief that their money is safe in the post office and they have the passbook as their proof.

"On verification discrepancies in withdrawal form, passbook and record accounts were noted" stated Sima Gurung during the hearing held on 6th June 2018. She added that they were done in a very clever way by overwriting and by making false signatures too. Along with Aloke Kr Das , asst superintendant, Susanta Bhadra, ASP headquarters, Rabi Kundel, inspector, Mal post office were present during the public hearing.

Gagan Rai, the accused in this case is absconding since 3 and half month. The case of forgery and cheating is registered in the Jaldhaka police station and a general diary is made.  More than 23 subscribers also have made individual FIR in Jaldhaka police station against Gagan Rai.

Jaldhaka Hydel Project post office does not have any facility of a CBS post office as such daily transaction is not sent to the central record controlling office. That is the loop hole of the post office system which made the postmaster care free as he is not liable to send daily details of the money transaction made in the post office. The local people have demanded CBS facility over here and safety of their money in the post office.

Gagan is a resident of Todey and was presently residing in Lower Paren situated in Jaldhaka Hydel Project area with his family. He was the then Gorkha Janamukti Leader of the Jaldhaka region. He also had served in Chumurchi post office in the Central Duars area and similar case of forgery and anomaly is found in the passbook and post office record book and complainants have filed similar cases against him. And it is believed that if all subscribers register their complaints then this case of forgery and swindle will be more than a crore.

It is alleged that Gagan Rai was in the habit of buying lottery and in the beginning he won several lakh of rupees, three to four times. He was then entangled into the habit of buying the lottery of several thousand at a time. But he lost them. With an intention to recover the lost money he bought more tickets every day and for that he used the money of the subscribers of the Chumurchi post office by making forged withdrawals. But he could not recover it instead he lost more money. By that time he found himself in a bad position. To evade from the departmental enquiry or of any complain he applied for transfer and he was transferred to Jaldhaka post office.

He joined the post office with the same idea of recovering the lost money in his mind. But he found the recovery difficult as he did not win any lottery. So he used the same method to collect huge sum of money and to leave the place and settle outside india.

He is believed to be presently sheltering in Nepal. Police is in search of Gagan Rai.

To gather more information an inquiry is organized on 9th August in the post office and subscribers are requested to deposit their SB/ RD/ TD/ MIS/ SSA/ KVP/ NSC passbooks and certificates. Department has assured the subscribers that if the documents on inquiry were found to be genuine then it would return the amount they had lost, in their accounts.