SSB suspends DIG for raising illegal funds from recruits

The SSB has suspended a senior DIG-rank officer for allegedly collecting over Rs 16 lakh in unauthorised funds from fresh recruits and illegally detaining an officer at a border camp, officials said.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) P S Chundawat was posted as the director of the Sashastra Seema Bal's Recruit Training Centre (RTC) in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
An internal inquiry conducted by the force earlier this month found that Chundawat was allegedly involved "in the collection of Rs 16,20,955 from trainees for purchasing unauthorised kit items like pagdi/safa, hockey sticks, books, e-rickshaw and LIC policies".
The inquiry report, a copy of which is with PTI, adds that he also raised "unauthorised funds for earthquake relief and other office funds" for the trainees, who join the paramilitary force from various parts of the country as constables.

Calls and text messages sent to Chundawat by PTI remained unanswered.
The officials said the SSB headquarters, which took a serious view of such "irregularities" and "financial impropriety", recently suspended him pending a further inquiry. The incidents are believed to have taken place in the last two years.

The DIG, they said, has now been posted to the SSB frontier headquarters in Lucknow.
Chundawat has also been charged with putting a deputy commandant-rank officer of the force under "house arrest", which the internal inquiry said "violated the basic provisions of law."
The inquiry found that the DIG's action was "uncalled for and did not conform with legal provisions as enshrined in the SSB Act and Rules."

After the completion of a final inquiry, to be conducted by an IG-rank officer, the matter could also be referred to the CBI for registration of a case under the anti-corruption law, they said.
The DIG had courted controversy earlier this year after he allegedly threatened his juniors at the RTC with transfers and downgrading of service records for not controlling their children and accused them of having turned a regimental event into a "children's park".
The about 80,000-personnel SSB is tasked with securing the 1,751-km India-Nepal border. The 500-acre RTC in Gorakhpur is the force's largest centre in terms of capacity.

The RTC trains new recruits who join the SSB as constables and acts as a refresher course centre for other junior ranks.
The SSB, which works under the Union Home ministry, also guards the 699-km Indo-Bhutan border.