Imphal, January 05: Even as the State Government has handed over the case of fraudulent withdrawal of pension entitlements amounting to over Rs 55 lakhs from Thoubal Treasury, with forged documents against the name of the pensioners who are no more alive or without the knowledge of the pensioners concerned, to the Enforcement Directorate of the Union Ministry of Finance, the police have started arresting some of the bank officials who were allegedly involved in the case.

According to an official source during a special auditing, the Accountant General of the State Government has found out that over Rs 55 lakhs had been fraudulently withdrawn by officials of Thoubal Treasury Office in connivance with bank officials against the name of the pensioners who are no more alive or without the knowledge of the pensioners concerned with the help of forged documents.

Consequently, the State Govt handed the case to the Enforcement Directorate for further probe.

Starting from 2006-07, the special auditing of the Accountant General covered the period till October, 2007 and found out that around 200 bills amounting to Rs 55 lakhs had been withdrawn fraudulently, the source said, while disclosing that the case was handed over to the Enforcement Directorate last month for further investigation under the Money Laundering Act.

Informing that the amount had been withdrawn in collussion between officials of the Treasury and the bank, the source said the code number allotted to the genuine pensioners by the AG were misused for withdrawing the amount.

Along with handing over the case to the Enforcement Directorate, police cases have also been registered against the Treasury and Bank officials allegedly involved in the case and Vigilance started probing into the matter.

Moreover, Thoubal Police arrested one Ningthou who works as a peon in the UBI Thoubal Branch and efforts are also being made to pull up other guilty officials, the source said.

It may be recalled here that the Treasury Officer of Thoubal was suspended from service last year in connection with this case.

Around 6000 pensioners failed to turn up for verification and taking photograph as part of the efforts being made by the State Govt to find out the actual number of genuine pensioners with the assistance of NIC.

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