The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a senior official of the Bank Note Press (BNP) Dewas and a travel agency for allegedly submitting inflated travel bills and claiming reimbursement for his four foreign tours between 2015 and 2017.
The accused have been identified as M. C. Bylappa, the then general manager of Karnataka’s Kodagu unit of BNP Dewas, and Meridien Air Travel Private Limited.
The case has been registered on a complaint from the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), under which the BNP Dewas functions. It is alleged that Mr. Bylappa indulged in cheating and forgery by manipulating his own travel allowance bill of foreign tours in conspiracy with Bengaluru-based Meridien Air Travel.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the SPMCIL’s chief vigilance officer initially received a communication on March 20, 2018, from the Central Vigilance Commission with a direction to conduct investigation into a complaint alleging that Mr. Bylappa manipulated his travel bills.
It was alleged that he submitted inflated claims of over ₹3.83 lakh for a tour from May 21 to May 31, 2016, to attend Bank Note Conference in the United States. The real cost of his ticket was about ₹1.76 lakh and he had taken his wife along with him, as per FIR.
The accused had concealed the information about his visit to Amsterdam during a tour in November 2017 for a pre-shipment inspection of Cylinder mould vat mode Watermarked Bank Note (CWBN) paper in Germany. He claimed an amount of about ₹3 lakh as his travel fare, whereas the cost of his ticket was ₹2.06 lakh. Following this, he had travelled to Amsterdam as well, but in the documents, he showed tour itinerary from Mumbai to Munich, then to Paris and back to Mumbai.
In another instance, he had visited Switzerland in November 2015 for the inspection of CWBN paper, for which he claimed over ₹2.31 lakh. However, the cost of his tickets was ₹94,092 and he had taken his wife along with him during the tour.
The fourth trip was to Malaysia in May 2017 for attending the Currency Conference, for which also the accused official had inflated the bills and claimed the reimbursement.
During the initial inquiry, the allegations were “prima facie” established, following which the case was registered.
