Monday, October 19, 2009

Ghaziabad Provident Fund Scam

In a tragic and unconscionable case of misappropriation of funds, about Rs.23 crore was diverted over a period of 8 years from the PF and Pension funds of class IV employees deposited with Ghaziabad District Court Treasury.  The funds were misutilised by the scamsters who were able to withdraw the funds with the permission of judges.  A part of the misapplied funds was spent on personal comforts of the judges.  It is alleged that one judge of the Supreme Court and twelve judges of the Allahabad High Court are among those involved in this nefarious deal. Though the names of High Court judges who are implicated are in public domain, the name of the Supreme Court judge is not disclosed.  But certain details are available.  For example, he has a house in Kolkatta.  His son was provided with costly equipments by the scamsters.  So we are led to imagine that the impugned judge is from Bengal and thus zero in on a couple of judges.  Such lack of transparency is very unjust to the judges who may not be involved but are suspected by people in the absence of full information. In the interest of judicial governance, it is expected that the Chief Justice of India would make all relevant details accessible to the public.  A key accused person who had started spilling the beans has now died while in a Ghaziabad prison.  It is suspected as a case of murder.  Would we ever know the truth?