New Delhi, Feb 2 (Agency) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday recovered cash of Rs 13.40 lakh during searches in an on-going probe of a case related to allegations of fraudulent settlement of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) claims into bogus accounts. A case was registered on complaint from EPFO Head Office in New Delhi against then Senior Social Security Assistant (Sr SSA), then Social Security Assistant (SSA), then Data Processing Assistant, then three Assistant Provident Fund Commissioners, then Accounts Officer, then Section Supervisor, all working in EPFO, Regional Office in Kandivali-East, Mumbai, said a CBI spokesperson here.
The officials of EPFO allegedly entered into a conspiracy with each other and settled fraudulent claims in 712 bogus PF accounts, causing loss to the tune of Rs 18,97,43,150 to the EPF corpus maintained by EPFO. The accused allegedly adopted a unique modus operandi and created bogus PF accounts in the name of certain persons of closed companies, showed credits of around Rs 2-4 lakh against each account and drew the amounts from these accounts by filing fake claims. The claims were allegedly found to be settled by the members with bank accounts in different parts of the country. Searches were conducted at four places in Mumbai, which led to recovery of incriminating documents. Cash of Rs 10 lakh from the premises of then Section Supervisor and Rs 3.40 lakh from the premises of then Social Security Assistant were also recovered, he added.