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Crores vanish from BJP office
WSN Network
 NEW DELHI: No
one likes money to go missing. And it’s harder if you can’t even
make a hue and cry about it. BJP finds itself in just such an
unenviablesituation after its chief accountant reported that Rs 2.6
crore in cash had gone missing from the party’s central office at
11, Ashoka Road.
The amount was
taken, clean as a whistle, from a “tijori” (safe) in a small room to
the back of the party headquarters, not far from BJP president
Rajnath Singh’s office. The theft came to light on Friday, when the
office reopened after Christmas holiday, causing consternation in
BJP circles.
The money was
deposited on December 24 and apparently stolen on December 25, when
the office was closed. The premises, however, have a fairly large
resident population of staffers and party office bearers who live in
the office building and the next bungalow — 9,
Ashoka Road.
The theft was
discovered by party old-timer Nalin Tandon, who has handled BJP
accounts for several years, and is one of the few persons with
access to the room with the safe. The incident looked like an
“insider job” as there were no signs of forced entry while the safe
lay unlocked. The door to the room and the safe had been opened with
ease.
As a red-faced
BJP brass mulled what had happened, it found itself wrestling with a
peculiar dilemma — the money had possibly been collected for
elections and was not accounted for and hence the police could not
be called in. After consultations, the party called in a private
detective agency to investigate into the theft. The incident has
left the party tongue-tied with no senior party leader ready to make
a statement on the missing boodle.When contacted party spokesperson
Ravi Shankar Prasad said he had no comment to make.
Sources close to
the BJP president said the matter was being examined, adding that an
explanation could lie in an “accounting error”. Reports were being
sought from state units about money deposited with the central
office An FIR would have been lodged if the money was part of
official donations or generated by party activity like a membership
drive. Delhi Police sources said they too had “heard” that a large
sum was missing from the BJP office but pointed out that in the
absence of a formal complaint there was little they could do.
Courtesy TOI
31 December
2008
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