Five held for salary scam

HYDERABAD: A commandant of Home Guards, who is an additional SP rank officer, and four armed reserve constables were arrested by the city police on Friday for  allegedly siphoning of salaries of Home Guards to the tune of around Rs 8 lakh, police said.The accused commandant J Krishnaiah, who joined the department as reserve sub-inspector in 1985 and subsequently went on to become an additional SP rank office and was posted in the Home Guards.Apart from Krishnaiah, four constables A Vinay Kumar, A Prashant, R Sairam and Md Habeeb Anwar were arrested for misappropriating over Rs 8 lakh, south zone DCP Manish Kumar Sinha said.  Vinay, Prasanth and Sairam were writers while Anwar is an accountant.The scam came to light after a reserve inspector, Bal Reddy, posted at the city Home Guard commandant's office in Purani Haveli lodged a complaint with the Mirchowk police on February 24 alleging embezzlement of salaries from  July last year to January this year.Mirchowk ACP M Kistaiah led a team of investigators and found the role of the Commandant and four constables in the scam.Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, Sinha said, the commandant had instructed the three unit writers and the accountant to claim double salaries, by making double entries in pay bills of those home guards, - Kasaiah, Siva Prasad and Shekar - who previously worked here and went to other districts on mutual transfer."The home guards, at the time of transfers, had given their bank ATM cards to the unit writers. After the amount was credited to the accounts of such home guards, the writers used to withdraw it and the accountant, who collected the same, used to hand over it to the commandant," the DCP said.Out of the total amount withdrawn, the commandant used to give back Rs 12,000 to be distributed among the three writers and one accountant at Rs 3,000 each, he said, adding that the total amount embezzled by them is around Rs 8 lakh.  Following a complaint, Mirchowk police here registered cases against Krishnaiah and the unit writers  under various sections and were remanded to judicial custody.Meanwhile, police commissioner AK Khan sent a detailed report to the DGP V Dinesh Reddy for necessary disciplinary action.