Devaswom officer arrested in Rs 1 crore scam involved in purchase of groceries and vegetables to Nilakkal mess

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Pathanamthitta vigilance team has arrested a former administrative officer of the Travancore Devaswom Board in connection with Rs 1 crore scam for the purchase of groceries and vegetables to Nilakkal mess during the Sabarimala pilgrimage. Ayoor native J. Jayaprakash was taken into custody from his house on Thursday. The accused is now under Vigilance custody. He is currently the auditor of Kottarakkara office of Devaswom Board and is under suspension for six months.

Jayaprakash, a native of Pattathanam, Kollam, who was a contractor at the time, had lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister, Devaswom Minister, Board President, Commissioner and Devaswom Vigilance about the fraud that took place during 2018-19.

It is alleged that a fraudulent bill and seal was forged in the name of the contractor for the goods delivered.The contractor was supposed to receive Rs 30,00,903. Out of this, Rs 8.20 lakh was paid and the accused wrote cheque for Rs 1.15 crore instead of remaining amount. The contractor was told to sign on the bill and the voucher. However, the contractor said to write a cheque for the remaining amount due to him. Despite this, the accused, two former executive officers and a junior superintendent handed over the forged signature cheque of the contractor to the bank and withdrew the amount.

The other accused in the case are former Devaswom Board executive officers Sudheesh Kumar and Rajendra Prasad and junior superintendent Vasu Potti. The investigation against them is in progress.