Haryana govt employee arrested in ₹590 crore IDFC First Bank fraud case

The State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in Haryana on Saturday arrested a state government employee in connection with the ₹590 crore IDFC First Bank fraud case.

Official sources said the employee's role is under the scanner in the fraud case, which rocked the state on Sunday after the private lender disclosed a ₹590 crore fraud committed by certain employees and others at one of its branches in Chandigarh, targeting state government accounts.

The accused employed with the panchayats department was produced before a court in Panchkula, which sent him to six-day police remand, the sources said.

On Tuesday, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested four people, including the alleged masterminds behind the fraud, with a private firm owned by the wife of a former employee emerging at the centre of the financial irregularities.

 

Two of those arrested are former employees of the IDFC First Bank, while the other two are private individuals who ran a partnership firm that allegedly received a substantial portion of the siphoned funds, officials said.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted under the supervision of senior IPS officer Ganga Ram Punia to probe the case.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini informed the state Assembly that nearly ₹556 crore, including ₹22 crore in interest, had been recovered within 24 hours of the fraud.

The director-general of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, A S Chawla, earlier said the money trail investigation was complex and would take time.

"We are hiring chartered accountants," he had said.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress chief Rao Narender Singh have demanded a CBI probe into the fraud.

Before the registration of the FIR by the ACB, a committee formed by the director of the development and panchayats department recommended a police investigation after uncovering alleged forgery and procedural lapses involving officials from the IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank.

The findings of the committee have been included in the FIR registered by the ACB.

IDFC First Bank had said that the fraud was "confined to a specific group of government-linked accounts within the  Haryana government operated through the said branch in Chandigarh", and stressed that it did not extend to other customers at the branch.

The private lender had earlier informed the exchanges that it had received a request from a Haryana government department for the closure of its account at the Chandigarh branch and transfer of funds to another bank.

In the process, the bank observed a difference in the balance in the account and the balance mentioned by the department.

The discrepancy amounted to ₹490 crore, before the lender detected an additional ₹100 crore, taking the total to ₹590 crore.