Maharashtra: Rs 76 lakh electricity scam in Shirdi Sai Baba Institute, FIR against 47 officers and employees

Shirdi, October 18 (IANS). A huge financial scam has come to light in Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust of Shirdi, the largest faith center for millions of devotees across the country. Misappropriation of electrical goods worth Rs 76 lakh in the electrical department of the institute was revealed during the audit. In this case, the Shirdi police registered a case of fraud and embezzlement against 47 officers and employees of the institute. On the direction of the court, the police registered an FIR. Investigation revealed that this matter had come to light in the audit conducted a year ago, but the local administration had not taken any concrete action on it. Seeing the negligence of the administration, social activist Sanjay Babutai Kale filed a criminal complaint in the division bench of the Aurangabad High Court for justice. Considering the gravity of the case, the Court on October 15 directed the Shirdi police to immediately register an FIR against all the 47 accused. Only after this strict stand of the court did Shirdi Police complete the process of registering the case. According to a report, officials and employees of the electricity department colluded. He did not properly register the electrical material under his command. Many valuable items were deliberately fraudulently entered in the ‘Dead Stock Register’ when in fact they were missing from the institution. In this way, the officers and employees caused financial loss worth crores to the institute. Police investigation revealed that 39 accused have paid their dues to the institute but 8 accused still have outstanding dues. Complainant Sanjay Kale obtained all the important documents related to this entire scam under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. His thorough investigation brought out full details of the ongoing mismanagement, false entries and misuse of material in the Electricity Department. When no action was taken despite complaints at the local level, he finally had to approach the High Court. After the FIR was registered on the orders of the court, Shirdi Police constituted a team to review the documents, audit reports and accountability. This incident sent a big warning to the senior officials of the Trust and their monitoring system that they must now take concrete steps to ensure financial transparency and implement strict audit. –IANS SAK/AS Share this story Tags