A huge scam of crores of rupees has come to light in the Postal Department. Money deposited by farmers and ordinary citizens under post office schemes was allegedly taken away fraudulently. This has created panic among depositors. Katol Police and Narkhed Police have registered cases against two postmasters in two separate incidents. The accused include one woman postmaster. The accused are identified as Sindhu Vijay Balbudhe and Vinod Thakre (40), a resident of Shembekar Layout, Saoner. Complaints were filed by Mala Balwanta Ingole (52), resident of Sindi Umri, and Sub-Divisional Inspector of Postal Department, Balaji Pandurang Shetwad (34), resident of Ghogali, Nagpur. In the first case, postmaster Vinod Thakre took advantage of the trust of farmer couple Mala and her husband. After selling their farm, the couple had deposited Rs 9 lakh in a fixed deposit scheme in July 2024. Thakre promised them higher interest.

 

However, he never gave them a proper passbook and later, tampered with the account details. It has now been revealed that he cheated more than 80 villagers and collected crores of rupees in the name of post office deposits. Mala later filed a complaint and Narkhed Police registered a case against him.

 

In the second case, postmaster Sindhu Balbudhe collected money under RD schemes and Sukanya Samriddhi accounts. But the deposited amounts were not actually recorded in the post office system. One account holder noticed the fraud when only Rs 1,200 was visible in the account instead of Rs 4,600. After detailed checks, it was found that Sindhu had misused Rs 9,65,250 from 24 account holders. Katol Police have registered a case against her. Police have started investigation and more victims may come forward.