Home guards clerk steals 25 lakh, jailed for 4 years

BENGALURU: A city court last week convicted a first-division assistant (FDA) in the home guards department of forgery and misappropriation of Rs 25 lakh and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment. He was told to pay Rs 24 lakh fine.
The embezzlement came to light in April 2014 after R Shivaprasad, 44, a resident of Sunkadakatte, and FDA with the home guards central district, was hospitalised after an accident and his wife handed over documents to his seniors.Among the papers she gave was a cheque issued in favour of Shivaprasad and bearing the commandant's signature.
BS Yogesh, then c om mandant, wondered how his signature had appeared on a cheque issued in Shivaprasad's name and ordered an internal probe. Shivaprasad, in charge of the accounts section, was found to have pocketed over Rs 25 lakh from the office. He had forged documents and Yogesh's signatures for personal gain. After Yogesh lodged a police complaint, CID took over the probe. Its investigation revealed that Shivaprasad had purchased gold ornaments and gifted them to a woman colleague. Police seized some ornaments from the woman during probe.
Not convinced by the defence counsel's argument that the fraud may have been perpetrated by others when Shivaprasad was in hospital, Manjula Itty, special judge of the 23rd Additional City Civil and Session, said 23 cheques had been deposited in his account and the money had been withdrawn by him.