CBI books SSB staffer in LTC scam involving 754 officers

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against a Sub Inspector of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and other unknown persons over allegations that 754 officers of SSB were involved in fraudulent claims of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) from 2014 to 2017.

The CBI had registered a case on December 16 last year on a complaint from the SSB's Vigilance Department against Milan Kherkatary and other unknown persons under several sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act).

In its complaint, the SSB alleged that a case of fraudulent claims of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) came to notice in 2018 in which about 754 officers of the force were alleged to have been involved in fraudulent claim of LTC from 2014 to 2017.

The complaint further alleged that "they all had their tickets booked through Kherkatary, who illegally booked LTC tickets of officers of force headquarters, SSB, New Delhi, 25th Battalion SSB Ghitorni and was probably also done for other persons outside SSB."

It further said that Kherkatary received commissions for editing air or train tickets from lower rates to higher rates.

"The entire case of alleged claiming of false or fraudulent LTC bills is a case that went on for a considerable period of time in which different categories of government servants, combatised or non-combatised, SSB personnel or non-SSB personnel, were involved," it said.

The complaint further said that initially 25 cases were examined in which total involvement of claim was for more than Rs 27 lakh. "Now with approximately 754 personnel getting involved, the amount of fraudulent transactions of LTC appears to be running into several crores," it said. (IANS)