SIT Probes Multi-Crore Pension Scam Unearthed in Chitrakoot
New Delhi: Investigation into a multi-crore pension scam in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district treasury has revealed that accounts of deceased pensioners were reactivated and used to divert crores of rupees in public funds. Reports peg the total amount misappropriated at up to Rs 120 crore.
The scam, according to officials cited in recent news reports, carried on for well over ten years, starting 2014. It was first detected in 2015 and the maximum withdrawals took place in 2018, The Telegraph newspaper has reported.
A Dainik Jagran report said that audit findings showed four deceased pensioners had their closed bank accounts reopened three months after they died in 2018, and then credited with large sums of money. Each account reportedly received between Rs 2 crore and Rs 4 crore. Officials claimed the irregularities were detected during an internal audit, prompting senior treasury officer Ramesh Singh to lodge an FIR on October 17 naming four treasury staff and 93 account holders.
Investigators believe the scam involved at least 95 accounts, many belonging to retired teachers, from which the over Rs 120 crore was allegedly misappropriated. The funds were routed through multiple banks, and transactions were recorded across the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank and Aryavart Bank.
The Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said that after the scam was first detected in 2015, two accountants of the treasury department in Chitrakoot, Rajesh Kumar and Manish Kumar, were suspended. However, no further inquiry was conducted.
“Over 90 new bank accounts were opened by treasury officers, sometimes in collusion with family members of the dead pensioners, who submitted fake life certificates. The pension money, sometimes more than the actual amount, was transferred from the treasury to those accounts electronically. Later on, the scamsters withdrew the money and used it to build houses or buy costly cars,” an administrative officer told the newspaper, explaining that more than the entitled pension amount was sometimes transferred to these new accounts.
District authorities have directed all pensioners to submit life certificates to prevent further misuse of dormant accounts. Around Rs 46 lakh has been recovered so far, and a special investigation team has been formed to probe the case. The state finance department has also ordered a separate departmental inquiry.
A circle officer heading the SIT, Sandeep Kumar Varma, said that since many people didn’t know that bank accounts had been opened in their names, “we are also probing how many account holders were operating their accounts themselves”.
The case has drawn renewed attention after one of the accused treasury officials, assistant accountant Sandeep Srivastava, died last week in police custody. Police said Srivastava fell ill during interrogation on October 18 and was taken first to the district hospital, then to Swaroop Rani Medical College in Prayagraj, where he died the following evening. His brother Sachin Srivastava alleged that he was beaten.
Srivastava was accused of irregularity in issuing pensions worth roughly Rs 42 crore between August 3, 2018 and October 6, 2025. His death was reported as having happened under "mysterious" circumstances in police custody, The Hindustan Times reported.
Amar Ujala noted that he had been in custody for over 24 hours before being taken to hospital. The incident triggered political reactions, with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav calling it “a serious issue” and demanding an impartial inquiry.
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