UP: Kanpur post office releases stamps featuring gangsters, one official suspended
A dozen stamps each of Chhota Rajan and Munna Bajrangi were printed at the Kanpur post office, at the request of an anonymous person.
The postmaster general of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Monday suspended an official after the main postal office in the district released stamps featuring photographs of gangsters Chhota Rajan and Munna Bajrangi, reported PTI. Rajan is currently in lodged in a Mumbai prison, while Bajrangi was murdered in 2018.
The stamps were issued under the “My Stamp” scheme run by India Post. The scheme allows you to make custom postage stamps from your own photos, after filling a form and providing an identity card issued by a government authority. Each stamp sheet costs the applicant Rs 300, according to The Hindu.
Investigation revealed that a dozen of stamps each of Rajan and Bajrangi were printed at the Kanpur post office, at the request of an anonymous person. The application was “submitted deliberately” for issuing stamps in the name of wrong persons, authorities said.
The lapse occured as philately department in-charge Rajneesh Kumar, who was manning the “My Stamp” desk at the post office, released the stamps without checking the identification papers of the applicant. Kumar was suspended for negligence.
“We have also issued show-cause notices to some other employees in this regard,” Postmaster General VK Varma said. “Efforts are on to zero in on the person who got the photographs of the criminals printed. It has been decided to take strict measures in the future to ensure such errors are not repeated.”