KARWAR: Lakshman Govind Naik, postmaster of Baithkol post office in Karwar, is absconding after alleged misappropriation of around Rs 50 lakh. He allegedly siphoned off money from over 300 people who had invested in several postal schemes On Saturday, a large number of people who had lost money gathered at the Baithkhol post office and demanded their money be returned immediately.Lakshman (in photo) had been working in the same post office for 22 years and was friendly with customers. "As he had worked here for several years, we believed him and now we realise he's a conman." they said.Locals said they had invested money in different postal schemes like savings, recurring deposits, etc. Most people who lost money are fisherwomen and labourers who are either semi-literate or illiterate. Many of these women said they had invested their lifetime earning in this post office, believing that if they invest money in a government organisation, their money would be safe. "Now, we realise our money was misappropriated and the postmaster is absconding . Who will give us our money?" said Lakshmi, a fisherwomen who lost about Rs 2 lakh.People said whenever they went to the post office to deposit money in one scheme or the other, Lakshman would ask them to hand over the money."He used to fill the forms and take our signatures on them. When we asked for the passbook, he used to show them handwritten passbook which he kept with him despite repeated requests to hand them over. Now, it's clear he was tearing these forms once we left and instead of crediting the amount in our accounts, he used to keep it with him. We realised it only now," people said.An old woman said she had deposited Rs 5 lakh over the past 10 years in an Recurring Deposit account but now the account balance shows only Rs 50. "All my earnings are lost," she said.Senior postal department officials visited the spot and pacified the people. They said the department would return the amount in their accounts. "If Lakshman had not credited the money in the accounts, how can we ascertain the customer had indeed handed it over to the postmaster or not? It is the responsibility of the customer to verify his account from time to time," they said.The department will lodge a police complaint against the absconding postmaster, the officials said.

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