A Rs 145 crore fixed deposit ‘fraud’ involving the Panchkula Municipal Corporation has come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate, which carried out searches across Haryana and Punjab as part of a money laundering probe. The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said municipal funds parked as fixed deposits in a Kotak Mahindra Bank branch were diverted using forged documents, fake authorisations and unauthorised bank accounts, with money allegedly routed through a network of officials and private individuals.
ED, in a statement, said it conducted searches at multiple locations in connection with the case linked to the alleged diversion of Rs 145 crore from the civic body’s deposits held at the Sector-11 branch of Kotak Mahindra Bank in Panchkula, Haryana.
What happened and how the funds were moved
The case stems from a March FIR registered by the Haryana Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau on charges of embezzlement of Panchkula Municipal Corporation’s fixed deposits.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, its preliminary findings point to a “criminal nexus” involving bank officials, municipal staff and private persons who allegedly worked together to siphon funds.
Two bank accounts were allegedly opened in the name of the municipal corporation using forged and fake authorisation documents, after which funds from genuine accounts were diverted into these unauthorised accounts through fake fund migration letters. Investigators said bank officials used unauthorised email IDs to process transactions based on forged instructions. The diverted money was then transferred to financiers, including Rajat Dahra, Swati Tomar, Kapil Kumar and Vinod Kumar, with a portion routed back to former bank official Pushpender Singh and his wife Preeti Thakur. Some of the funds were also moved into real estate firms and to private individuals.
The agency said the municipal corporation was issued forged fixed deposit receipts showing investments in 16 FDs worth Rs 145.03 crore, with a projected maturity value of Rs 158.02 crore.
Who is under investigation
Searches were carried out on Wednesday at about a dozen locations across Chandigarh and Panchkula, along with Zirakpur, Dera Bassi and Rajpura in Punjab.
The premises of former Kotak Mahindra Bank deputy vice president Pushpender Singh, former customer relationship manager Dileep Kumar Raghav, Vikas Kaushik, a former senior accounts officer of the municipal corporation, and others were covered during the raids.
The Enforcement Directorate said it seized “incriminating” documents during the operation.
Singh, Raghav and four others have already been arrested by the Haryana Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in connection with the case.
What the ED is doing now
The probe has been initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), with the agency tracking the flow of funds and identifying assets linked to the alleged diversion.
Officials said the investigation is examining how public funds were moved through unauthorised accounts and later channelled into private hands, including investments in real estate.
Past instances of such fraud
This incident follows a similar fraud at IDFC First Bank involving Rs 590 crore from Haryana government-linked accounts. In that case, the private lender attributed the fraud to “unauthorised activities” by branch employees and has since reportedly repaid 100% of the claimed amount to the government.
Last year, Sakshi Gupta, a former relationship manager at ICICI Bank in Kota, was arrested in a multi-crore fraud that ran for two years. Investigators said she accessed more than 110 customer accounts, diverting funds into stock market investments and breaking fixed deposits. The fraud came to light after an internal probe found unauthorised overdrafts, debit card usage and a fraudulent personal loan, leading to losses for customers.
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