5 suspended, probe ordered after 50k misappropriation in Nanded gurdwara

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The board of the Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib Gurdwara in Nanded has suspended five staffers and ordered a departmental inquiry after one of them allegedly misappropriated Rs50,000 meant as donation on Feb 13.The Wazirabad police on April 20 lodged an FIR under sections 316 (5) and 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against sevadar Ramandeep Singh Bhullar based on a complaint lodged by gurdwara superintendent Ravindra Singh Kapoor (57). Kapoor's complaint said the incident took place between 10am and 4pm on Feb 13, when Bhullar was posted at the donation counter and was on duty accepting offerings from devotees at gate no. 1.A devotee from Indore, Ragbir Singh, approached him to donate Rs51,000 online. Police said Bhullar allegedly misled him and claimed that the official swipe machine and e-golak system were not operational. He directed Singh to transfer the amount to his personal bank account, using his private mobile number and issued a receipt.Singh was suspicious and raised the matter with another gurdwara staffer on the same day. Discrepancies were found in the carbon copy of the receipt on verification. The amount was shown as Rs1,000 instead of Rs51,000 initially, with signs of overwriting.During the end-of-day reconciliation, Bhullar allegedly failed to account for the full amount collected. While the total collection stood at Rs76,050, he reportedly submitted only Rs25,350 to cashier Ajitpal Singh Shahu and kept the remaining amount.Gurdwara administrator Dr Vijay Satbeer Singh told TOI: "We have suspended Bhullar and four other seniors present during the shift at the time of the incident. The four people are accused of helping the suspect by either omission or commission. We are carrying out a departmental inquiry and an audit will be done to ascertain the scale of the total misappropriation, which may be big."Officials said an internal inquiry had earlier found Bhullar guilty, following which he had deposited Rs50,000 with the gurdwara board. Police said further investigation is underway, while the gurdwara management has initiated parallel administrative and financial scrutiny.