Joint Director seizes documents at hostel

Hunsur: In a clear case of fence eating the crop, a warden and staff of Post-Matric Backward Classes Boys Hostel, Hunsur, have usurped the grant of about Rs. 84 lakh by allegedly forging the documents.

The officers in the dock had fudged the documents related to grants sanctioned for about 100 hostel inmates, after evicting them. They had fabricated the biometric record of those hostel inmates and pocketed the grant for four years, till it came to light recently.

Dr. C.K. Jagadish Kumar, Joint Director, Backward Classes Welfare Department, who conducted an inspection in this regard on Friday, has seized the documents related to fake biometric attendance of the hostel inmates.

Four years back about 120 students had taken admissions at this hostel. The warden at that time had recorded the thumb impression of every students by applying wax. The same students were later removed from the hostel, citing reason of cancellation of their admission. However, those involved in the racket had been allegedly using the thumb impression of same hostel inmates daily to record their bio-metric attendance, gobbling a grant of Rs. 1,750 released for each inmate for the last four years amounting to Rs. 84 lakh.

Following a complaint from R. Rakesh Rao, State Director of Maratha Gonduli Samaj, alleging the involvement of Taluk Backward Classes Welfare Department Officer S.S. Suchendra Kumar, Warden S.S. Manjunath and Cooking staff N. Ravichandra in the scam, Dept. Joint Director Dr. C.K. Jagadish, along with District Officer Raghavendra, conducted a surprise inspection at the hostel and seized fake documents.