18 J&K Health Dept officials booked for over Rs 30 lakh fraud

J&K State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) today registered a case against 18 Health Department officials for "fraudulently" withdrawing a sum of Rs 30 lakh.
The officials including a Block Medical Officer (BMO) of Uri, treasury officer and three medical officers, were booked under Prevention of Corruption Act following a preliminary inquiry by the SVO, a spokesperson of the anti-graft body said.
A formal investigation has been taken up and the role of Directorate Health Services, Kashmir who is also the Budget Controlling Officer of Medical Block Uri in Baramulla district would also be probed, he said.
A preliminary inquiry revealed that in June this year, BMO of Uri, Sheikh Farooq Nazir and his clerk had fraudulently drawn Rs 30,70,200 as pay revision arrears in favour of 13 contractual employees disregarding the Government Order, the spokesperson said.

"In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, the accused received the share of Rs 98,000 from Medical Officers and Rs 65,000 from other staff through his clerk's bank account," he said.
"It was also found that, out of the said amount, Rs 4 lakh has been transmitted in cash to the accused BMO through his sub-ordinate Parvaiz Ahmad Lone's bank account," he said.

Despite the fact that the whole amount of four bills was deposited in the official bank account of the accused BMO on June 11, he transferred only Rs 1 lakh each to the bank accounts of 13 contractual employees on June 17 to enable them to pay the share of BMO and his Clerk.

"The withheld amounts were transferred to the accounts of the staff only after the receipt of that share. Two of the staff delayed the transfer of the accused BMO and his clerk's share. Consequently release of their remaining amounts was delayed and was done only after the payment," he said.
Treasury officer, Rouf Ahmad Beigh, Altaf Ahmad (Orderly) and Parvaiz Ahmad (Basic Health Worker) have resorted to abatement of crime by facilitating execution of the "criminal conspiracy", the spokesperson said, adding the accused have been booked and a formal investigation has been taken up.