Online rummy addiction led treasury official in Kerala to swindle Rs 2 crore from district collector's account

A treasury official in Kerala swindled Rs 2 crore from the account of a district collector's official account allegedly by making use of loopholes in the banking software.

It was suspected that addition to online rummy game had prompted M R Bijulal, a senior account of a sub-treasury in the state capital, to swindle the funds. He is now absconding and would face summary suspension.

Prima faice assumption of investigation agencies was that Bijulal allegedly transferred Rs 2 crore from the Thiruvananthapuram district collector's account for tribal welfare funds to his treasury account using a fake cheque. Username and password of a former sub-treasury officer who retired from service was used for passing the transaction as the retired officer's account was not yet deactivated.

Bijulal swiftly transferred the amount to another personal account in his name and his wife's name and deleted the initial transaction from the district collector's account treasury banking system. But since the amount were already transferred from the beneficiary account, the amount was not reversed.

Since Rs 1.38 crore was transferred to savings bank accounts in treasury itself, it could be already recovered, while Rs 62 lakh was yet to be traced.

An audio clip purported to be that of Bijulal's wife Simi said that Bijulal used to spend money on online rummy playing and it could have prompted him to swindle the funds. He had recently mentioned about huge losses caused by online rummy game, she said.

The police FIR on the incident says that he had been swindling money since December last, which poses serious suspicions on how the higher authorities remained unaware of it.