‘Wife killer’ steals jail chequebook, and Rs 30 lakh

VARANASI: A man accused of killing his wife pulled off a perfect Shawshank Redemption’s Andy Dufresne-type con on prison authorities, siphoning off Rs 30 lakh from the back account of UP’s Azamgarh district jail after walking out on bail with a prison cheque book on May 20, 2024.ASP (city) Madhuvan Kumar Singh said Saturday that an inquiry revealed the murder accused, Ramjit Yadav Yadav, with the help of another prisoner Shiv Shankar alias Gorakh, senior assistant Musheer Ahmad, and jail watchman Awdhesh Kumar Pandey, had transferred nearly Rs 30 lakh from the bank account operated by the jail superintendent into his own account. All four have been taken into custody, police said. The fraud came to light after jail superintendent Aditya Kumar Singh noticed a suspicious withdrawal of Rs 2.6 lakh on Sept 22 this year. Singh questioned the jail’s senior accounts in-charge Musheer Ahmad about the withdrawals, but he denied any knowledge of the missing money.

The jail administration subsequently reviewed the account statement and launched an internal probe, uncovering the involvement of jail staff and another inmate who helped Yadav, who posed as a jail contractor, forge the jail superintendent’s signature on the cheques. Yadav, from Jamua Shahgadh village under Bilriyaganj police station limits in the district, had been lodged in the jail on Feb 24, 2023, on the charge of killing his wife.