A shocking case of pension fraud has come to light, where the son of a retired Central Telegraph Office (CTO) officer continued withdrawing his deceased father's pension by not informing the authorities of his demise. The accused has been booked by the MRA Marg Police for embezzlement and cheating the General Post Office (GPO).
The accused has been identified as Nimeshbhai Kabhai Beldar, a resident of Pethapur in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. His father, Kabhai Bhailal Beldar, served as CTO at the Mumbai GPO and retired in 2007 after several years of service. Post retirement, he was receiving a monthly pension through the central government system.
As per officials, Kabhai Beldar passed away in December 2018, and his wife Jayaben had died earlier in September 2017. Despite his father’s demise, Nimeshbhai failed to inform the GPO or submit the death certificate, which was his responsibility. As a result, the pension continued to be credited to the deceased’s bank account.
It was only in October 2020 that Beldar’s son-in-law Dilip Beldar submitted the death certificate to the GPO. This triggered an internal inquiry into the pension amount credited post-death. During the investigation, it was found that Nimeshbhai had withdrawn ₹3,11,988 from his father’s pension account using ATMs after his death.
The pension payments were eventually stopped in November 2019 when a "Life Certificate" was not submitted. By then, the accused had also sold off the family’s ancestral house and gone incommunicado.
Vithal Govindrao Pallewad, a Deputy Superintendent at the GPO and a resident of Navi Mumbai, was responsible for overseeing irregularities in pension-related matters. Based on directions from higher authorities, he lodged a complaint with the MRA Marg Police, following which a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust was registered against Nimeshbhai Beldar.
Police confirmed that the accused has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and further investigation is underway.