Goalpara:
The in-charge principal of West Goalpara College, Abdul Wahab Miah has lodged a complaint against two government officials for misappropriation of funds in construction of girls hostel in the West Goalpara College. The Complaint mentioned that an amount of Rs 17,91,314/- was allegedly misappropriated by the two govt. officials – )Adl. DC, Omar Sharif who was earlier posted as the Adl. DC, Goalpara in charge of the education dept. and , assistant executive engineer , PWD building, Goalpara Arif Rahman under the scheme “Construction of 100 bedded girls’ Hostel at West Goalpara College under MSDP 11th Plan”. In this regard, a case no 296/20 dated 13/06/2020 under IPC sections no 120(B) / 420/ 384/406/409/468/471 has been filed against both the accused persons at the Goalpara police station on 13th June,2020 .
The FIR mentioned that the present incumbent ,deputy commissioner Varnali Deka issued an order vide Memo no. GDCP-433/MsDP/GH/2017/52-(A) entrusting Adl. DC Omar Sharif the then in charge of the education dept. at the Goalpara DC office to act as the president of the construction committee of the aforesaid work instead of the college principal Abdul Wahab Miah who was made the member secretary of the said CC by modifying the earlier order GDCP 433/MsDP/GH/2017/27 dated 17th May,2018 issued by the earlier deputy commissioner Ghanshyam Das wherein the principal Abdul Wahab Miah was assigned as the president of the construction committee.
The FIR also mentioned that during his tenure as the member secretary since May ,2018 till 26/02/2019 of the construction committee the principal incurred a huge debt in the market while executing the construction work in his capacity to several service providers including labour payment and that the total expenditure incurred against the construction of the said work was
Rs 39,32,614/- whereas the committee received funds of Rs 30,00,000/- released in 2 installments of Rs 15 lakh each on 02/08/18 and 02/11/18 respectively as per the bank statement.
It was also mentioned in the FIR that after taking over the charge as the president of the construction committee by the accused no. 1 Adl. DC Omar Sharif shrewdly manipulated the principal ( member secretary) by calling him at his residence on 06/11/2018 with the cheque book and coerced him to sign 4(four) nos. cheques i.e. cheque no 304049 of Rs 50,000/-, Cheque no 304051 of Rs 1,00,000/-, cheque.no 304052 of Rs 1,00,000/-, cheque no 304053 of Rs1,00,000/- which he eventually did and later another chq. no 304055 dt 06/11/20 of Rs 50,000/-was signed thereby making a total advance payment of Rs 4,00,000/- made to M/S Monoj Enterprise for supply of materials. Subsequently, payments of Rs 1,00,000/- each were made vide cheque no 304047 dt 06/11/2018 to one Khadem Ali c/o Lalchan Ali for Sona Grill vide and another firm vide cheque no 304048 to M/S Assam Marble thus showing making total payments of Rs6,00,000/- .However, without thinking the degree of risk involved for making such advance payments his priority as the college principal cum member secretary of the construction committee was to carry out the construction works smoothly and without any hindrance. In this regard, he met Adl. DC Sharif on 01/01/19
After detecting that these business firms were reluctant to carry out the assigned work even after making advance payments in their names ,the complainant ,college principal Abdul Wahab Miah met the accused Adl. DC Omar Sharif on 01/01/2019 with the complaint for not executing the requisite works. The FIR mentioned that later the principal discovered that an amount of Rs 6,00,000/-money was siphoned off by the accused Adl. DC Omar Sharif in connivance with his coterie of firms namely M/S Monoj Enterprise, Sona Grill,M/S Assam Marble.Then again, an amount of Rs 2,45,000/- was misappropriated by withdrawing from the account by the accused no. 1 for making payments by establishing an unholy nexus with one of the governing body members asst. prof. A.K.Paramik vide chq. no. 304038 ,dt 08/08/2018 of Rs 1,50,000/-,chq. no 304041 dt 08/09/2018 of Rs 55,000 and chq. no 304058 dt 22/01/2018 of Rs 40,000/-.Meanwhile, during his tenure he received Rs 30,0000/- out of which a sum of Rs 21,41,300/- has been utilized as per the records and vouchers while the amount misappropriated by the accused is Rs 8,45,000 (Rs 6,00,000/- + Rs 2,45,000/-)
The FIR also stated that during the complainant’s tenure as the member secretary he incurred a total liability of Rs 17,91,314/- in the market while completing a major portion of the construction works but while pursuing with the accused for getting the amount for making payments to his creditors he was unceremoniously removed as the member secretary of the CC by the present deputy commissioner Varnali Deka by issuing a partial modified notification vide Memo no GDCP 433/MsDP/GH/2017/98 dated 27th Feb.,2019 where asst. executive engineer , PWD building, Goalpara Arif Rahman was entrusted as the member secretary of the said CC. The FIR claimed that the complainant was unceremoniously removed from the CC solely based on an illegal office notice issued by the accused no 1 Adl. DC Omar Sharif without assigning any valid reasons or issuing a show cause notice which is mandatory according to the financial , the FIR stated.
The newly constituted construction committee(CC) received an amount of Rs 45,00,000/-which was credited to the account no. 37728305118,SBI,Goalpara branch of the ‘Construction Committee Girls’ Hostel, West Goalpara College ,Ambari on 16/03/19 (as per the bank statement) which was allegedly misappropriated by both the accused no.1 & no.2 in their capacity as the president and member secretary of the CC by fraudulent means but without paying the outstanding dues of the amount of Rs 17,91,314/ incurred by the outgoing member secretary(the complainant) who owes to the creditors i.e. the service providers of the construction work.
In this regard ,a legal notice was served by the complainant to both the accused persons on 02/06/20 to refund the entitled amount within 15 days but strangely a noticed was issued by the present Adl.DC (MsDP) Dr A. Amin vide memo no. GDCP433/MsDP/GH/2017/174-A dt 04/06/20 asking the former member secretary, the complainant to submit the original vouchers of the entitled amount of Rs 17,91,314/- which were submitted earlier complainant while giving charge to the accused no 2 as the member secretary of the CC on the instruction of the accused no 1 in the presence of other members of the CC .However, the complainant again on the insistence of the present Adl.DC (MsDP) submitted the photo copies of the above-mentioned vouchers, the FIR further stated.
Noni Das, a social activist while criticizing the inefficient administration for not even giving an internal probe after detection of the alleged financial anomalies under the MsDP scheme pointed out that the embezzlement cannot be carried out in isolation and demanded a high level enquiry into the incident so that those officials involved may be brought to book as per laws. However no such enquiry was initiated by the Deputy Commissioner till today.
