EPFO fraud: CBI books nine officials, pvt firm

NEW DELHI: The CBI has registered a case against nine senior officials of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation ( EPFO) and others for defrauding the exchequer of Rs 169 crore. The CBI also named four employees of a Delhi-based private firm in the case registered on Wednesday.

The agency conducted raids at 23 locations including the offices of accused senior EPFO officers on Wednesday.

The CBI case names S K Khanna, the then additional central provident fund commissioner (north zone), who is presently posted in Chandigarh; M S Kalia, the then regional provident fund commissioner-1, Delhi (south), now posted in Ludhiana, and C S Gogna, the then enforcement officer, EPFO, Delhi (south) currently working in Jaipur.

The agency has also named six enforcement officers of the department -- Bikas Roy, Anup Sharma, Promila Singh, Rajeev Mukherjee, Sudhir Batra and R S Tawar.

The CBI case claims a criminal conspiracy between the EPFO officials and some officials of B L Kashyap & Sons Ltd, a construction firm based in the national capital. "The accused allegedly created false records in respect of certain employees engaged, inflated the number of excluded employees, manipulated the period of engagement of employees and thereby manipulated the amount of provident fund liability which was due and payable by the said private firm," the agency said in a statement. The entire loss caused to the public exchequer was Rs 169 crore.