YOU OPENED MY EYES

1990. Nagpur-- One distantly located branch in Bhandara district-- Vigilance Inspection Report indicated suspected misappropriation of funds as certain documents like voucher bundles, loan ledgers, cash book etc were missing from the branch.-- Internal Auditors could not trace out details.-- Hence the case came to me for detailed investigation.

A couple of times I visited the branch and went through the documents. It was found that dates of the missing vouchers and the absence of the branch manager coincided. The second officer was in charge of the branch in occasions like this. The second officer (we will call him Ashok) was very co –operative with me. He became the prime suspect in spite of his very good academic and professional record.

On investigation it was seen that whenever the manager was on leave, many loan accounts were debited by Ashok towards inspection fee, postage charges etc and the corresponding entries were credited to another account and a loan a/c operated on his name instead of crediting to the bank’s profit and loss a/c. He used to prepare 200 to 250 vouchers to transfer funds to his account. He did all this alone sitting very late in the branch. All relevant vouchers and registers were destroyed subsequently to avoid detection. I gave him really a tough job to do…….. Reconstruction of the destroyed vouchers!!

The available documents to prove the case were collected by me and brought to my office. Ashok was asked to come to my office next day to answer some questions. He reported and admitted everything and explained that he spent the amount towards buying books and some expensive gifts for his near and dear ones. When he left my office, he did not forget to remove the documents I procured from the branch and put me in trouble. He was nowhere to be seen. I could only locate him the next day. He came with me to my office but denied about his stealthy act the previous day. I could have lost my job because of his act. I lost control and behaved badly. He was taken aback. He admitted to tearing the documents and threw them away on his way back home in many places. He confessed that he had destroyed the thick ledgers and voucher bundles in a jungle some 3 months back.

I had to act fast. I took him along the road, picked up the torn pieces of documents from many places including public toilets and the jungle which was some 80 km away from Nagpur. Some bystanders were asking about the operation to which my driver reacted funnily ….Bomb disposal squad. Ashok admitted the case and repaid the defrauded amount. He said that he did it for brightening his academic carrier for which he needed some expensive books. Yes, of course he was a scholar and had passed bank’s difficult exams. This finally resulted in him losing his job.

After a long time I received a letter from him. He mentioned that he was well settled in Delhi and his financial status had improved a lot. He started coaching classes for higher class’s students and his income rose to four times of the bank’ pay. He wrote “sir, you told me on that day to choose the teaching field to quest my knowledge and I did the same. Now I am well off. Today I am ashamed of what I did earlier. For a small amount of money I lost my credentials. But you told me that there is a reason for everything and whatever happening is for good. Yes, it is true. That day I confessed my guilt before the bank, but now before my conscience. You opened my eyes….”

Ashok, I do not know about that, however I wish you all success in your life.