Discom MD flags ‘suspicious’ transactions of nearly ₹69 crore in Noida division’s accounts

The managing director of Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), Aravind Mallappa Bangari, asked the accounts officer of the Noida division of the discom to furnish details of ₹67.34 crore presented under the ‘uncashed cheques’ head in the division’s accounts books. Bangari has also sought an explanation for ₹1.44 crore mentioned under the ‘other debits’ category. The managing director has termed the division’s transactions “suspicious”.

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Bangari said he had asked the accounts officer of PVVNL, Noida, to send the reconciliation report of all “suspicious” entries in their report but has not received a reply so far. “On January 21, I had asked the account officer to provide the updated bank details of ₹67,34,81,337.71 mentioned under the category ‘uncashed’ cheques and another ₹1,44,09,359.37 listed under ‘other debits’. Not only that, I have also asked the account office to furnish the details of ₹ 84,76,74,040.68 mentioned under ‘other credits’,” he said.

Divisions of the power distributor across the state had submitted their accounts books to the managing director’s office in December last year.

The PVVNL MD said that since officials are usually extremely busy in the month of March as it is the closing month of the fiscal, he will send the reminder to the Noida division in this connection next month. “Unless we get the reconciliation report, it is too early to call the transactions as part of a scam. But, yes the transactions are suspicious in any circumstance,” he said.

When contacted, Geetanjali (single name), account officer of PVVNL, Noida, said that the account books are being looked into. “We’ll soon send the report to the managing director,” she said.

She, however, refused to comment if she found any transaction suspicious in the division’s accounts book “It is a confidential report and we are not entitled to speak anything about it,” she said.

Two cases of financial irregularities had surfaced at the PVVNL recently. On February 19, the Noida police arrested three former and serving contractual employees of PVVNL, a deputy manager of Punjab National Bank, an employee of a private data service provider agency ( which provided services to a private bank) and three other accomplices for siphoning off payments worth around ₹1.77 crore via cheques and demand drafts. Property, money in banks and cash worth ₹78, 77, 540 were also seized from the suspects.

Explaining details about the case, DCP (zone 1) Sankalp Sharma, said that a former contractual employee of the PVVNL, Sachin Kumar, was the kingpin of the scam. “He roped in Manish Kumar, who was tasked with depositing the demand drafts/cheques in PVVNL’s bank account at the private bank.”

The DCP further said the duo in connivance with Anand Gautam, a deputy manager working with Jokhabad, Sikandrabad branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), opened a fake bank account with similar abbreviation as the bank account of the EEEUDD and deposited the payments in the fake account.

The DCP also said another case was registered against three PVVNL officials on March 9 at Sector 20 police station based on a complaint by PVVNL executive engineer BL Maurya. “A case of illegally depositing ₹54 lakh in the revenue account of PVVNL has been registered against the executive engineer, assistant account officer and office assistant for making counterfeit documents to deposit this amount in 2019,” he said. All three officials named in the FIR have been suspended by the department.