NEW DELHI: The CBI has been called in by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to investigate a widespread racket in claims of leave travel concession (LTC) involving central government and public sector employees as well as travel agents.
The CBI, which was asked on August 16 by CVC to carry out a criminal investigation, is likely to question dozens of such employees. Large sums are said to have been siphoned out of the government by producing fake Air India tickets and boarding passes (the only airline that government and PSU employees are allowed to use for LTC).
A sizeable number are of the rank of under secretary and above. Most of them claimed to have travelled with their family to the extremities of the country — the northeast, Kerala and the Andamans. The racket, said sources, has been one of the worst kept secrets although there was no actionable evidence against it.
The Kolkata Police was the first to stumble upon the LTC racket in March this year when it detained a passenger at Kolkota airport with more than 600 blank boarding passes of Air India. He was to board a SpiceJet aircraft to Port Blair. On being interrogated, he claimed that he was to deliver it to someone in the Andamans. The surmise is that this someone in the Andamans was to fill up fictitious details of flights there on the blank boarding passes. An investigation by the police is underway, sources said.
Read news in full Josy Joseph, TNN | Aug 22, 2013
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