Panchkula court sends IAS officer to 3-day CBI custody in Fund scam

A Panchkula court on Friday sent Haryana IAS officer Ram Kumar Singh to three-day CBI custody in Crores  of rupees Fund scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) arrested Singh on Thursday for his alleged involvement in siphoning off funds amounting to over Rs 79 crore from a bank account of Municipal Corporation, Panchkula, in the IDFC First Bank in Sector 32, Chandigarh. The Rs 657 crore scam involved officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, who colluded with government officials, including IAS officers, to siphon off funds from the bank accounts of eight Haryana government departments and two Chandigarh Administration departments.
According to the CBI statemet,  the said account was opened in violation of the extant guidelines of the Finance Department, Government of Haryana. The particulars recorded in the account opening form were entered in a manner designed to conceal the fraudulent transactions intended to be carried out subsequently. Pursuant to an understanding with the accused officials of IDFC First Bank,  RK Singh, IAS, Commissioner, MC Panchkula, handed over multiple signed cheques to the bank officials through middlemen under the garb of opening Fixed Deposits. The funds were debited using these cheques and no Fixed Deposits were ever created. The debited amounts were diverted to shell entities controlled and operated by the accused bank officials.The misappropriation was carried out with the knowledge and active participation of the then Commissioner and the Senior Accountant of MC Panchkula. Senior Accountant has already been arrested by CBI in this case. Investigation conducted so far revealed active role of  RK Singh. His residences at Chandigarh and Karnal have also been searched and several incriminating documents have been recovered, it said.
Ram Kumar Singh is a 2012 batch IAS officer. He was promoted to the IAS service from the Haryana Civil Services (HCS). After his name cropped up in the scam, the Haryana government suspended him on April 8, along with another IAS officer, Pardeep Kumar of the 2011 batch, who was also allegedly involved. Besides Singh and Kumar, the Haryana government had earlier granted permission to investigate the role of six more IAS officers in the scam. So far, 15 people and three shell entities have been chargesheeted in the case related to the Haryana government accounts before a Panchkula court. The chargesheet against IAS officers is yet to be submitted.
The CBI is investigating two more cases: one pertaining to the siphoning of funds from the Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL)’s bank account and another pertaining to misappropriation from the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST)’s account. The CBI claims that the quantum of fraud in these two cases is Rs 153 crore. The probe agency has chrarge sheeted 5 bankers, 1 CSCL official and 1 private person in CSCL case; and 5 bankers, 2 CREST officials, 4 private persons and 2 companies in CREST case. Further one senior IFoS officer has already been arrested in CREST Case.

(Freelance Journalist)