Pension scam unearthed at AIIMS

NEW DELHI: A new scam seems to have hit the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). A lower division clerk in the premier institute is alleged to have embezzled funds to the tune of around Rs 22 lakh in the name of pensioners who are dead.

The south district police has lodged a case in the matter though no arrests have been made so far. Police sources claimed the malpractice had been on for several months but the authorities got a wind of the situation only recently.

The cops said it was amazing how an ad-hoc employee in the lower division clerk cadre could easily ‘‘walk’’ away with the money. ‘‘The accused, Rajesh Rastogi, had a list of all employees of AIIMS who were dead. Even as some of them died about a year ago, pension was being issued as AIIMS authorities were not aware of the deaths. Rastogi would deposit the cheques issued for the pensioners and withdraw them later,’’ said a senior south district sleuth. ‘‘As the handling clerk, he was one of the last persons who post pension cheques to the corresponding addresses. Hence, no one initially suspected foul play,’’ added the investigating officer.

Police said the accused opened two fake accounts at a nationalised bank in south Delhi where he deposited these cheques. ‘‘One was in the name of M K Tyagi while the other in the name of Mary Toppo. The accounts had been regularly updated, hinting that the fraud was being carried out at a big scale,’’ said the officer.

According to officials, while Tyagi died in February 2009, there was no pensioner by the name of Toppo. Her PPO number - 226 - is similar to that of one Suresh Dutta, an ex-technician employed with AIIMS several years ago, who died last December.

‘‘When AIIMS authorities finally detected the crime, an internal inquiry by the financial advisor and director of pension cell was carried out. It was found that there were financial irregularities and the accused was transferred to the financial branch from the pension cell. We are questioning a number of people as this has been going on for the past several months and others might be involved in the scandal,’’ said a senior officer.