AP scam: 56 per cent of siphoned money recovered

Amaravati, Sep 3 (PTI): The Stamps and Registrations Department has so far recovered a sum of Rs 4.62 crore out of the purported Rs 8.13 crore loss of revenue in what has now come to be known as the ''Challans Scam'' in Andhra Pradesh.

Staff of the Department, in collusion with document writers, swindled the government to the tune of Rs 8.13 crore over the last one year, but an internal audit last month brought it out. The Department has so far placed 14 sub-registrars and staff under suspension over their alleged involvement in the scandal.

''We have so far recovered Rs 4.62 crore from the swindlers and the balance Rs 3.50 crore will be recovered by next week,'' Special Chief Secretary (Revenue-Registrations) Rajat Bhargava said.

Criminal cases were also registered against 33 private parties (document writers) in connection with the scam, he said.

The document writers and the department staff manipulated the software and shortchanged the government in payment of requisite registration fee through challans, a reconciliation of transactions has revealed.

Initially, the Department estimated the siphoned amount to be around Rs 5.40 crore, but a deeper audit exposed that more than Rs eight crore was involved in 38 sub-registrar offices across the state.

Only the offices in Anantapuramu district remained clean with zero loss, while Krishna district topped the chart with 11 cases involving Rs 4.21 crore.

Visakhapatnam was second with a loss of Rs 1.39 crore, followed by Kadapa with Rs 1.30 crore.

In Vizianagaram, East Godavari, Guntur, Prakasam, Chittoor and Kurnool districts, 100 per cent of the swindled amount has been recovered.

Visakhapatnam is at the bottom with only a 16.89 per cent recovery so far, government sources said.

The Computer-Aided Registration software of the Department has now been modified and linked to the Comprehensive Financial Management System (of the Finance Department) to ensure foolproof transactions of all registrations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)