Peon siphoned Rs 6cr govt funds from UP treasury? 53 acs frozen; booked, probe on

Pilibhit: At least 53 bank accounts were frozen following a probe by police in Pilibhit after a peon allegedly used them to “siphon around Rs 6 crore from the UP govt treasury over a span of nearly two years”. A case has been registered against the peon, Ilham-ur-Rahman Shamsi, and his wife, police said, adding that the “scam” came to light after a bank manager’s tip off.Confirming the development, SP (Pilibhit), Sukirti Madhav, said, “Apart from the 53 accounts, the account of Shamsi’s wife, Arshi Khatoon, a housewife, was also frozen. These account holders were fraudulently presented as ‘govt employees of the education department’ and some of them were used as proxies. FIRs will be lodged against them too.”Madhav added: “We’ve also detected properties involving huge funding via illegal transfers of govt money. Notices in this regard have been served to those builders to immediately stop work... Role of govt officials at district treasury and secondary education department cannot be ruled out. Probe is on.”According to a senior officer, the matter surfaced this Feb after a bank manager’s alert to DM Gyanendra Singh about a suspicious transfer worth Rs 24 lakh to Arshi’s bank account on Dec 3 via 21 NEFTs (national electronic funds transfer). During the subsequent scrutiny of her personal bank account, the manager found a total govt transfer of Rs 1 cr between Sept 12, 2024, and Dec 3, 2025 -- even though she was not govt staff, he said. Later, transfer of over Rs 5 cr was noticed in other accounts.Shamsi, a Pilibhit resident, had initially worked as a peon at a govt inter-college in the district’s Bisalpur tehsil. After a while, he was attached to the office of district inspector of schools (DIOS) allegedly “without promotion”, and was assigned the duty to look into the official accounts related to the salary payment of govt employees along with departmental bills.An FIR was registered against Shamsi and his wife on Feb 14 after a complaint by DIOS official, Rajive Kumar, under sections 340 (2) (fraudulently using as genuine document or e-record), 338 (forgery of valuable security or important documents), 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust) and 336 (3) (forgery...) of BNS. The couple managed to secure an anticipatory bail from Allahabad high court, and hence, could not be arrested, cops said.