In another bizarre incident related to the increasing fever of betting in the Indian Premier League, a postmaster in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh has been charged for fiddling with the funds that were supposed to be fixed deposited.
Vishal Ahirwar, Bina sub-post office postmaster spent a massive sum of more than 1 crore over a period of 2 years on his IPL bets. The entire money belonged to two dozen families who had invested or rather had thought to be investing the money in fixed deposit through Ahirwar.
Bina Government Railway Police (GRP) station in-charge Ajay Dhurve whose team arrested the accused said, “The arrested sub-postmaster Vishal Ahirwar has been booked right now u/s 420 IPC (cheating) and 408 IPC (criminal breach of trust). More sections could be added in the case based on the outcome of further investigations.”
The accused cheated various families by issuing them with original passbooks in the name of fake fixed deposit accounts. The matter came to light when a few of the passbook holders went to claim their dues or money and found that no accounts existed in their names.
Amongst many innocent people who were duped was a lady who lost both her husband and father-in-law during covid and is now at a loss of Rs 9lakhs and an old woman who had deposited an amount of Rs 5lakhs for the marriage of her four daughters. The future of these small investors who deposited their hard-earned money in the post office looks unclear now.
Earlier in the past, the Ahirwar was also suspended following charges of financial irregularities during his previous posting at a sub-post office in Khimlasa in the same district.
