In what is suspected to be an Rs 70-crore scam, the Bengaluru city police last week booked a case against the chief executive officer (CEO) and several former officials of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) Staff Credit Co-operative Society Limited for allegedly duping members of the society out of money.
The FIR was registered on October 31 after C J Muralidar, a section supervisor at the EPFO office on Rajaram Mohan Roy Road and president of the co-operative society, filed a complaint with the Cubbon Park police, accusing CEO G Gopinath, former accountant B L Jagadish, former presidents Jayashankar and Vijendra Rao, former CEOs Lingappa Gowda and Prabhakar, and others of systematically siphoning off employee funds.
The FIR stated that nearly 300 serving and retired EPFO employees deposited money as fixed deposits, as they had been promised 9 per cent annual interest. However, payments reportedly ceased about three months ago.
Muralidar’s internal investigation revealed alarming discrepancies: only Rs 3.5 crore was disbursed as loans while the society collected approximately Rs 70 crore in deposits. It was further alleged that the accused created fake records, forged documents, and manipulated financial statements to conceal the embezzlement.
Over 50 former and current employees gathered at the Cubbon Park police station demanding immediate arrests.
Akshay M Hakay, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), confirmed that investigations were underway.
The police have registered under sections 61(1) (criminal conspiracy), 314 (criminal breach of trust), 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 316 (4) (criminal breach of trust by carrier) and 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust by merchant or agent), 318 (4) (cheating), 336 (2) (forgery for purpose of cheating), 336 (3) (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 338 (forgery of record of court and public register), 340 (1) (using as genuine a forged document), 340 (2) (using forgery document with knowledge), and 344 (fraudulent or dishonest of use of electronic signature, password etc) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.