Anticipated disciplinary action

sumitbijuria (Querist) 25 April 2012 This query is : Resolved
Sir/ Madam,

I am working as officer in a PSU & during sep,11 i entered into com lease accomodation wherein the lease agrrement was signed by our estate dept manager & the owner & one agrrment between me & my estate dept manager. During the processing the owner agreed for com lease but when the papers & rental advanbce of Rs 60k was made ready he refused to enter into that coz of tax problem being a bank employee and untimely rent payment by company and other problems. By that time i paid him 30 k cash & even paid his property tax which he refused to pay but as it was a mandatory requirement of our org so i paid that thru my cheque for my houseowner. I asked my dept & they said there is no tax hassles as the rent was rs 10k. i convinced my houseowner about no tax hassles, he halfhearted agreed and told that me to sign all the papers on his behalf and that he would make personal rental agreement with me. I told him that my compnay would pay rent in his name thru cheque then he said about tax problem that he wanted rent from me on or before last day of month. He told that he would open a bank ac in pvt bank just for this purpose and he did and sent one person with the bank form with his photo & voter id an asked me fill it up with my ofice address as mailing address which i did accordingly. He a;so asked me to manage the bank ac when my compnay would do neft credit for rent to adjust the rent that i paid from my end. He also mentioned the mailing address in bank ac as my of address, so i received the atm, internet banking and all used for several of my transactions and adjusting the rent that i paid to him from my end. the dd of 60k paid by my company in his name was crdited & encashed and paid to him by adjusting my advance paid by me. I asked him for rental agreement many times but he neither made the rental agreement nor gave me any rental receipt. once i asked him to put an ac by my ownself but he disallowed me to do rather asked me to pay rs 25k & he himslef would fix it but i refused to pay. I told him that i wanted to vacate since i was looking for another job & transfer and asked him to refund me my advance. I am married but due personal problems with my wife living for few months seperately. to cook my food & do household work i askekd one of my sources in assam to arange for the same. he broght one lady to cokk & do the household work, my houseowner saw her and might have mistaken being my wife, i also did not disclose anything as i sent her after 1 week coz she could do the cokking & other work properly. then during nov,11 my wife came with my father with whom i have been having difficult relationshsip came and there was a hard talk and scene between me & my wife for which he might have annoyed and asked me vacate the house. my wife left when her parents came. i vacated in dec,11 and asked my estate dept that i wanted to terminate the lease but they refused & told that i should continue for 1 yr else they would not allow com lease accomodation for 3 months or more for premature termination of com lease deed of 2 yrs. out of compelling situation i searched another house, made personal lease deed with the new owner & shifted my household goods. My previous houseowner deducted 5 k and refunded the rest to me in cash & cheque. i just told him that i may continue to show staying in his house for 6-9 months ans then terminate it. he did not asked me about his bank atm & all, so shifted without the knowledge of my company in the new house fro jan,12. company paid the rent thru neft in my previous owner bank ac, i encahsed it it & paid to my new houseowner. now in mar,12 a letter was sent to my previous houseowner as per compnay records asking for confirmation of rental advance of rs. 60k. on receiving that he just called once saying that what it w as i said there was no such financial problem to him but just a formality & i would takle care of it withour caausing any promlem to him. But he for reasons known to him did not trust me and told my estate dept manager that he did not sign any com lease deed, nor had any such rental advance in his bank ac. I was nervous & tried to eplain my compelling situation which had happened but the estate dept dept manager told me as fraud and encashing the money for my ownself which is not the truth. My estate dept manager told me that he has sent thematter to our com vigilance dept and whatever they decide i have face the same. Some are saying i wwould be terminated & some say there will be other punishments. I do not what to do, please help what to do now, how can i save my job if they decide so in disciplinary action. the matter happended on 28 mar,12 but tilld ate they have not given me any notice nor called for explanation except my dept manager who signed the inspection report for approving the lease accomodation which was a pre-requisite to process the company lease acomodation but he also showed no interest supposing that i was fraud. Pls help me with immediate advise. I am ready to pay the fees. can they dismiss me, kindly help me how to defend myself and save my job. Incase need any further details i am avilable at 9445521451. Ragards Biju

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Sudhir Kumar, Advocate (Expert) 25 April 2012

Many thousands of PSU employees get the lease accommodation and you are a race case.

An experience Vigilance Officer may not be requiring more than one hour for drafting your chargesheet after collection of necessary evidence.

You have been very meticulously weaving the web around you. You have no evidence to defend do not expect the ill-motivated landlord to come to your rescue as a witness when he (as per your description) is well cunning enough and no match before a fool like you.

Just for the sake of allowing him to evade income tax you have created evidence sufficient enough to dismiss you from service and even to hand you over to police. Such cases in Govt deptts/companies, as a policy are never shown any mercy.

all the evidence necessary to prove that

• you were yourself making a fraudulent lease deed wherein you signed for the landlord.
• The rent was deposited in an account which did not belong to any of your office colleagues and you connived with bank officials and allowed your office address to be used.
• You collected ATM card etc while the account was not yours. You physically withdrawn the money deposited by the company for payment to landlord. (there may be CCTV record (which your Vigilance Deptt should obtain if they are worth their salary).
• The so called landlord did not withdraw the money.
• You found uncomfortable and created a false story of fight with your wife and the landlord asking to vacate while the lease was for two years.
• In order to cheat the company for not being debarred, you despite informing the company of being at another address kept on the leave and kept on withdrawing the money.
• On inquiry by the company the landlord denied any agreement and denied receipt of any advance.

Further you also claim to have paid house tax of the house this is also another circumstantial evidence that you somehow or the other wanted to push through the proposal for fraudulent purpose. It is also a matter of separate investigation as to how much was the amount and as per your status whether you were required to intimate this transaction to the employer and whether you have done so.

From your description it is clear that what you Estate manager has done are the best he should have done for saving his own career.

Your manager is also perhaps doing his best to save his career in not cooperating further as he stood convinced about the fraud.

You Vigilance department need not be in a hurry they may question you when all necessary evidence is there. They may not even question you and talk though chargesheet only. In the given circumstances it may be wise for Vigilance Officer to seek you explanation as by way of explanation in these circumstances you will provide more perfect evidence against you.

You can cause harm the career of your landlord if :-

(i) The said bank account was in his bank where he is employed.
(ii) If he has filled the remaining portion of form (other than mailing address)
(iii) If he has given his photo and ID for the bank.

No bank may be interested in continuing services of such person.

But if you further annoy him then he can also slap one more allegation that while you were married to Smt X he had seen you keeping Smt Y in the said house. This will be a case of immoral behavior in private life which is generally a misconduct in PSU and this will also be a case of misuse of lease accommodation for keeping other than members of family ( as per definition laid by Govt). He can also cooperate with your Vigilance deptt to record statement of neighbors. You will be at the mercy of the said lady to be paid well to depose and convince all that she was not more than domestic service. But do not expect much cooperation from her in Indian scenario. There are hundreds of employers like you as long as she has a respect in society. Once branded (even if wrongly) as ex-keep she loses her career as a maid and may be even husband (if she has one).

Plus your landlord can also sue you for the money ddraded out of his account as you hve no receipt of payment to him. While evidence is there for your transaction. He can even file criminal case of impersonation at ATM.

sumitbijuria (Querist) 25 April 2012
i do have cheque payment details for the rent payment.
How can i pay his property tax if he did not allow me to do so.
How can i open a bank a/c in his name if has not given his photo & voter id.
He opened the bank ac in a diff bank pvt bank.
I told com that i wanted to terminate the lease deed but they told that it would not be possible and have to wait for atleast 1 yr.
i did make a false story of fight with your wife and the landlord asking to vacate while the lease was for two years. that a fact.
I know it seems that i did the offence but there is not done with any wrongful intention or misapprorpaite the money.
I have told the facts and want a solution of possible rather than establishing that i did the offence and i will beterminated, thats what i also know. But i am writing here so as to defend my self with the available defences and facts of the case. I know that i may be dismisseed but i did not do anything with srong intention as such i came to this forum to seek your assistance to defend myself.

Raj Kumar Makkad (Expert) 26 April 2012
I do endorse the views of Sudhir.

sumitbijuria (Querist) 26 April 2012
so dismissal is the only expected outcome of my case. there can be no defence at all for me. mr sudhir & Mr. raj, i thank u for ur valuable advise. it seems that one committing a mistake without any wrong intention or motive under compelling situation have no recourse thru our legal fraternity. anyways thanx let me face wat comes in my way.

Guest (Expert) 26 April 2012
Dear Amit,

You cannot be the judge of your own cause by claining the mistake to be without wrong intention or motive when you knowingly do some wrong thing by intentionally manipulating and faking the documents with clear intention to defraud your employer in your own interest.

sumitbijuria (Querist) 26 April 2012
ok thanks to all of u.

Guest (Expert) 26 April 2012
You are welcome with advice on cautious working in your organisation.

Sudhir Kumar, Advocate (Expert) 26 April 2012
Nobody on this forum is your enemy.

You came here for advise and not for goody-goody talks.

The experts here commit a sin if they fail to show you the gravity of the situation. I have dealt with hundreds of fraud cases but your case is unique as seen from you description:-

(i) You created every evidence on earth to prove that you are a fraud though may not actually be aware that what you are doing is fraud.

(ii) You came for legal advice when everything was over.

(iii) You came across a person who appeared to be cunning enough not to leave evidence and you never got alerted. Perhaps that house was not the last in the town.

(iv) It is hard to convince everyone that you voluntary danced to his tunes without ulterior motive.

Now about the defences are planning be discussed (for your benefit):-

i do have cheque payment details for the rent payment.

Comment But you will have to prove that it was a payment for rent. Even this does not wipe out the fact that you were impersonating at the ATM and personally received the money paid by company.

How can i pay his property tax if he did not allow me to do so.

Comment Why should you pay the property tax even if allowed by him. Why he should not pay the taxes. Why you should not have alerted yourself about the motive.

How can i open a bank a/c in his name if has not given his photo & voter id.

Comment That he can very well say that you have stolen copies of these papers unless he himself has filled the form and signed (Which I believe that a cunning criminally disposed bank employee may not do). His claim can be believed by everyone because you yourself operated the said bank account to retrieve the payment arising out of a contract which he claims to having signed which you admit having signed for him.

On the contrary how can you allow your office address to be used for this account. This is totally unheard.

He opened the bank ac in a diff bank pvt bank.

Comment That does not wipe out the fact that you allowed your office addressed to be used and you operated the account. You can at the most prove his connivance but not your innocence.

I told com that i wanted to terminate the lease deed but they told that it would not be possible and have to wait for atleast 1 yr.

Comment Why it was you why not he who wanted to terminate the lease you were under no obligation to vacate the house simply because of your wife coming and quarreling this so happens in most houses and they are not asked to vacate. You perhaps have some more facts.

It this was the lay of the company then why did you not submit to the same while opting for premature termination of lease, instead of finding way to fool the company.

i did make a false story of fight with your wife and the landlord asking to vacate while the lease was for two years. that a fact.

Comment Without even asking the content and cause of fight it is clear that fight may be a fact but that was not giving any justification to landlord to ask you to vacate nor obligation to you to vacate.

I know it seems that i did the offence but there is not done with any wrongful intention or misappropriate the money.

Comment Please see what Mr Dhingra has stated. You may be innocent in your thought but other persons see the evidence and circumstances which clearly speak of something else.

I have told the facts and want a solution of possible rather than establishing that i did the offence and i will be terminated, that what i also know. But i am writing here so as to defend myself with the available defences and facts of the case. I know that i may be dismissed but i did not do anything with srong intention as such i came to this forum to seek your assistance to defend myself.

Comment Your present defence have been alaysed with whatever experience I do have in the field of Vigilance and frauds.

You feel that you are not being advised. But you fail to appreciated my yesterday’s reply wherein I hinted that when Vigilance department asks explanation you will give more evidence. That clearly means that such replies are required to be given careful.

In Govt sector rarely one gets penalty other than dismissal/removal/compulsory retirement if the charges of fraud with public money is proved.

However, in Govt Sector one is not dismissed just by fall of hammer. You will get a chargesheet, Inqiry wherein (subject to you PSU CDA Rules) you will be at liberty to call any serving or retired Govt servant [lawyer if allowed by Appointing Authority] of your choice to argue your case in the Inqiury. But this person cannot be expected to miracle.