Lucknow, Aug 23 - An Uttar Pradesh government official, who had blown the lid off

an old age pension withdrawal scam, was suspended on the recommendation of a police investigation team probing the fraud.

Social welfare officer of Sitapur town Y.K.Rai had lodged the first information report (FIR) in the Kotwali police station against as many as 5,055 people, including government officials, village heads and those withdrawing pension on the basis of forged documents. Sitapur is 80 km from here.

A fraud of Rs.9.1 million in the pension fund scheme of the central government was first detected in Sitapur district Aug 14, but the figure has already touched Rs.18 million within a week. According to officials, the fraud is expected to touch Rs.120 million as the investigators dig deeper.

'Rai was suspended after the investigation team sent here from Lucknow found his involvement in it also. Besides Rai, nearly a dozen other officials of the social welfare department have been suspended since the probe began,' Sitapur district magistrate Sanjay Kumar told IANS.

'The fraud is expected to touch Rs.12 crore (Rs.120 million) or even higher as the probe progresses,' he said.

However, Rai claimed to be innocent and said it was he who had blown the whistle on the scam about two months ago.