Accountant suspended for exchanging invalid notes

AURANGABAD: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation suspended an accountant employed with Latur district’s Udgir-based bus depot on Friday for helping a person exchange his unaccounted money of higher denominations.
Primary reports suggest the MSRTC employee, Dilip Biradar, allegedly helped a local trader to exchange several lakhs of unaccounted demonetised currency notes.
The MSRTC is now conducting a probe to find out how many more such people were helped by the accountant.Authorities said that depots from across the state receive several crores of rupees in change and the possibility of insiders indulging in such unethical practices cannot be ruled out.
The incident has come to fore within days of a similar case reported from Udgir branch of Bank of Maharashtra.
Latur divisional controller, MSRTC, KS Landge, said that a two-member team from Pune has reached the depot to conduct an audit.
The officer said that the higher-ups have taken serious cognizance of the incident and the vigilance cell has been asked to keep an eye on depots.
Depot manager SR Basha said, “Since demonetisation came in to effect, there were rumours of our men helping people. We finally decided to probe it and carried out a discreet probe, only to find our accountant’s involvement”.
Udgir police inspector Umashankar Shirmukhe said, “After learning of the incident, our team visited Udgir bus depot, but the MSRTC staffers, citing unavailability of seniors, did not cooperate with us.”
The officer said that a case would be registered against the accused and police will carry out a probe once they receive a complaint.