Three men get 5-yr RI for fraud in PF claims withdrawal

Three persons were sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment each by a special CBI court here for committing forgery in withdrawal of PF claims.

The court convicted the three - Gajendra Singh Chouhan (who was LDC at EPFO in Bhopal), Pratap Singh (then supervisor in EPFO) and Rajendra Singh Thakur (Gajendra's brother) - on Tuesday, a CBI release said here on Wednesday.

Gajendra and Pratap have also been fined Rs 8.5 lakh each, failing which they will have to undergo another sentence of 8.5 years.

A penalty of Rs six lakh has been imposed on Rajendra, and if he fails to pay the amount, he will have to face another six years of imprisonment.

A complaint against Gajendra and two others was filed in March 2006 by the then Regional Provident Fund Commissioner that they had colluded through forgery, cheating and forged documents to settle PF claims in favour of persons who were not members of the EPFO.

This had caused a loss of Rs 21,18,536 to the EPFO, it was mentioned in the complaint.

The accused had been charged under IPC sections 120-B, 420, 427, 467, 471 and 477-A and section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.