A police investigation has revealed that the postman at the sub post office in Pylon Colony, Nandikonda Municipality, fraudulently withdrew over Rs 1.5 crore from customers’ deposits. The postman, Perumala Ramakrishna, was caught and brought to court by Nagarjunasagar Circle CI Bisanna.
Complaints from the public and postal officials prompted the CI to visit the post office and uncover the scam. Ramakrishna would give customers duplicate passbooks, deposit their money, and make incorrect entries in the original passbooks. He also changed phone numbers to illegally withdraw money without the customers’ knowledge.
The public is shocked that the postal department officials were unaware of such a massive scam involving hundreds of customers. Normally, if a small amount was withdrawn from an account, officials would call the passbook holders to confirm the transaction. However, in this case, they failed to notice the fraudulent activity until later. Perumal was suspended on December 17 and surrendered in court after 10 days of suspension.
This is not the first time such a scam has occurred at this post office. In November 2018, a sub-postmaster named Venkatachari absconded with Rs. 67 lakh. He eventually surrendered and spent all the stolen money on lawyers and court costs. He was sentenced to imprisonment and had his assets confiscated.
