The five arrested accused include Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Rajesh Meshram.
Nagpur: In multi-crore stationery scam in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), the Economic Offences Wing (EoW ) of Nagpur Police, a 1,800- page charge-sheet has been filed in the court against five accused. A few more accused are likely to be arrested in the case, according to media reports.
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Wednesday 07 Jan. 2025
The accused arrested are Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Rajesh Meshram, Auditor Mohammad Ashfaque Ahmed, General Administration Clerk Mohan Ratan Padvanshi, Padmakar (Kolba) Sakore (55), a resident of Jaiprakash Nagar, and Atul Manohar Sakore.
The scam surfaced in December last year when the Health Department blew the lid after the officials refused to endorse a stock register about receiving supplies of stationery against which payment was already made. The FIR was registered against five accused persons under Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and IT Act at Sadar Police Station.
In view of the seriousness of the case, Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar had handed over the investigation to the EoW. Under the guidance of DCP (EoW ) Dr Akshay Shinde, Police Inspector Praveen Kamble and his team had arrested the five accused Padmakar Sakore, Atul Sakore, Ratan Padvanshi, Ashfaque Ahmed and Rajesh Meshram. The charge-sheet was filed against the accused, while a supplementary charge-sheet will be filed soon against accused Medical Storekeepers Prashant Bhatkulkar and Shanish Gorkhe.
Following the unearthing of irregularities in the Health Department, the EoW is suspecting the involvement of officials of three more departments of NMC in the scam. Similar type of scam was committed by some officials of the Birth and Death Statistics Department, Library and Solid Waste Management departments.
The information came to fore in an inquiry report submitted by NMC with the police. Police are perusing the documents of the departments and action would be initiated on the basis of findings of the investigation, said a senior official. The police are also awaiting the inquiry report of the Standing Committee. More than Rs 10 crore were siphoned off by the scamsters in the last few years, the official said. Two senior NMC officials are also on the radar of EoW and it is collecting evidence against them before arrest.
