A Rs 14.50-lakh scam has come to light in the Mandi Municipal Council (MMC) for the 2006-2010 period. A clerk, in connivance with successive executive officers (EOs) and the secretary of the council, allegedly embezzled rent collected from shopkeepers.
The Vigilance authorities today lodged an FIR under Sections 408, 420 and 120 B of the IPC against the clerk. It is probing the role of the EOs and the council secretary in the embezzlement of rent collected from shopkeepers in the town during this period.
The Vigilance authorities had received a complaint in 2010 regarding embezzlement in the collection of rent from shopkeepers for the 2006-2010 period. The Vigilance authorities completed the inquiry and prima facie found the involvement of the then council clerk who, in an alleged connivance with successive EOs, embezzled shop rent to the tune of Rs 14.50 lakh as the council never deposited it in the bank account.
SP, Vigilance, Central Range, Virender Sharma said the police had lodged an FIR charging the accused with hatching a criminal conspiracy and breach of trust. The alleged connivance of the clerk with the successive EOs was under investigation, he said.
The audit of the council, conducted by the section officer, Local Fund Account, Shimla, had also detected irregularities in the collection of rent from shops in 2010.
The Vigilance inquiry found that the clerk and the EOs collected Rs 14.50 lakh as rent from shopkeepers, but they never deposited it in the bank account from 2006-2010. President of the MMC Sushila Sonkhla claimed that the council had put a system in place to recover the shop rent and deposit it in the bank account after the case came to light.
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