Haryana IAS officers are being investigated by the CBI in the Rs 657-crore IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank scam. According to the CBI, three of the accused officers, who are in jail, bypassed rules to open bank accounts for eight departments of the Haryana Government, and facilitated transfer of money from those accounts to shell entities.
As many as 236 fraudulent debit transactions worth Rs 818 crore were carried out from 12 accounts - of which the share of AU Small Finance bank was Rs 96.61 crore and the remaining share was of IDFC First Bank. While 84 fraudulent credit transactions were carried out worth Rs 214 crores - of which the share of AU Small Finance Bank was Rs 72.09 crores. In this washing machine of fraud, the loss to the banks — and therfore, the depositors — was estimated at Rs 504.36 crore. A total of eight IAS officers are under the CBI scanner for facilitating the scam.
Related news: ED attaches assets worth Rs 200 crore in IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank scam
No cheques & balances: Haryana fraud exploited gaps in pvt banking system
The role of IAS officer Mohd Shayin is critical. Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) Dry Fly Ash Fund account was opened with the IDFC First Bank, Sector 32, Chandigarh, on February 27, 2024. The proposal to open the account was submitted by Ribhav Rishi, then IDFC First Bank's branch manager, on February 19, 2024. It was addressed to the Managing Director (MD), HPGCL. At the time, the MD was IAS officer Mohd Shayin.
When the proposal was made, IDFC was not empanelled with the state government for any business purpose. When Deepti Kaushik, Senior Accounts Officer of HPGCL, informed Director of Finance Amit Dewan about the same, he told her that it would be dealt with at the time of depositing funds. However, by July of 2024, IDFC First Bank got empanelled.
According to the investigation papers, accessed by The Tribune, around November 10, 2024, Shayin called Bahadur Singh Gosain, Chief Accounts Officer, HPGCL, to his cabin. Ribhav Rishi, mastermind of the scam and branch manager of IDFC First Bank, was present in the cabin. Shayin allegedly directed Gosain to arrange funds for the Dry Fly Ash Fund's IDFC Bank account. Gosain came out of the MD's room at HPGCL. After a while, Ribhav Rishi also came out and met him in his chamber. He said that Shayin had agreed to place around Rs 50 crore in the Dry Fly Ash Fund account and had asked him to do the needful.
As per the CBI, Gosain then met Director of Finance Amit Dewan and informed him about Shayin's direction. Dewan said since it was the order of "MD sahib", they had to do it. The details of all funds held by HPGCL at the relevant time were accessed by Dewan. Since there was no fixed deposit (FD) maturing in the near future, it was decided to prematurely break the FD maintained with IndusInd Bank. In order to make everything appear right on paper, it was decided to compensate the loss of interest on the premature withdrawal of the FD with a higher interest rate from IDFC First Bank.
Senior Accounts Officer Deepti Kaushik was then asked to do the calculation for the interest rate required from IDFC First Bank. Gosain then called up Ribhav Rishi for the required interest rate, who then offered 14 per cent interest from November 11, 2024, to March 28, 2025. In this regard, Ribhav Rishi delivered a letter to Gosain on November 11, 2024. It turned out to be a forged letter as the bank didn't have any such information.
The CBI papers reflect that the same day (November 11, 2024), there were two calls from Shayin to Gosain, who, on the letter, recorded that "as directed, please transfer the amount of Rs 50 Crores to IDFC First Bank by partial premature withdrawal of funds from FD with IndusInd Bank".
Gosain has told the CBI that the word "as directed" means the direction to transfer the funds originally came from MD, HPGCL (Mohd Shayin). Then, a note was put up to withdraw Rs 50 crore from the Rs 108 crore FD at IndusInd Bank, and Shayin approved it.
Shayin served as HPGCL MD from July 8, 2019, to December 3, 2024. There were six fraudulent debit transactions totalling Rs 59.46 crore, and four fraudulent credit entries amounting to Rs 5.79 crore, resulting in a misappropriation of Rs 53.67 crore.
The HPGCL Employees Pension Fund Trust account was opened with IDFC First Bank on August 14, 2024. Shamim Dar, then area head of government banking, had moved the proposal on July 16, 2024, for the opening of the HPGCL PF trust Account. The investment and accreditation for the same were received at the office of the HPGCL MD, who marked it to Director of Finance Amit Dewan on July 18.
A proposal to open new savings bank accounts in the private sector banks and small finance banks was initiated. The file mentioned opening of accounts at four banks, but the MD ticked IDFC First Bank on the notesheet in black ink. The bank account was opened at IDFC First Bank, Sector-32 Branch, Chandigarh, though in the noting approval was sought for Panchkula branch.
The cheque book in this account was not opted for earlier when the account opening form was filled, and not requisitioned till the posting of mastermind Ribhav Rishi at IDFC First Bank. There were 9 fraudulent debit transactions totalling Rs 19.71 croree account.
IAS officer Vineet Garg served as Chairman of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) from December 2, 2024, to April 9, 2026. Pardeep Kumar served as Member Secretary, HSPCB, from August 31, 2022, to December 10, 2025. He was promoted from the Haryana Civil Services and was allocated to the 2011 batch.
The HSPCB's account in IDFC First Bank was opened on February 27, 2025, without obtaining any approval from the Finance Department, Haryana. On March 5, 2025, Pardeep Kumar submitted a proposal recommending an investment of Rs 50 Crore as FDR with IDFC First Bank, which was approved by Chairman Vineet Garg on March 8, 2025. Instead of being invested in FDRs, the funds were diverted to CAPCO Fintech Services, a shell entity, floated by the mastermind of the scam.
On March 27, 2025, a further proposal for investment of Rs 17.90 crore was submitted and approved by the Chairman the same day. These funds were later siphoned off through Swastik Desh Projects and SRR Planning Gurus Pvt Ltd, both shell entities. As per the CBI papers, an accused, Manish Jindal, exploited his prior professional relationship with Vineet Garg to secure the parking of HSPCB funds with IDFC First Bank. In return, he allegedly received Rs 25 lakh cash, two iPhone Pro 17s and 75 gm gold.
The CBI says that both Pardeep Kumar and Vineet Garg continued to concentrate funds in IDFC First Bank in breach of the Rs 50-crore ceiling imposed by a Finance Department circular dated July 12, 2024, taking their exposure well beyond the Rs 100 crore limit. Pardeep Kumar was arrested on June 30. HSPCB lost Rs 169.69 crore from two accounts that experienced 49 fraudulent debit transactions and 6 fraudulent credit entries.
Ram Kumar Singh served as Commissioner, Municipal Corporation (MC), Panchkula, from October 26, 2020, to May 12, 2021, and then again from July 10, 2025, to January 28, 2026. He was promoted to IAS from Haryana Civil Services and was allotted the 2012 batch.
Panchkula MC's account was opened at IDFC First Bank on October 29, 2025. There were 22 fraudulent debit entries worth Rs 100 crore through six cheques, bearing signatures of Surinder Jain, Senior Accounts Officer, and Ram Kumar Singh. There were three credit entries worth Rs 20.54 crore. The total loss from the account was Rs 79.46 crore. According to the CBI, Ram Kumar Singh accorded approval to open a bank account with IDFC First Bank in conspiracy with masterminds Ribhav Rishi and Abhay Kumar, and another accused, Naresh Kumar.
He allegedly issued cheques to the co-accused with full knowledge that they would not be used to create FDs but would be misappropriated, and has allegedly admitted that the signatures on the said cheques were his own. Even after discrepancies between the dates of creation of FDs and the corresponding debit entries were brought to his notice by his own office, Singh proceeded to issue further cheques to the co-accused.
IAS officer Pankaj Agarwal served as Principal Secretary, School Education, from December 10, 2024, to June 16, 2025. Later, he served as Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department, from June 20, 2025, to March 24, 2026. He even supervised the state's 2024 Assembly elections.
As per CBI papers, accused Shamim Dar, area head, government banking group, IDFC First Bank, submitted a proposal on May 21, 2025, to the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board (HSAMB), offering 7% interest on a savings account.
The proposal didn't receive any attention till July 2, 2025. As per the CBI investigation, Agarwal sent the name and number of the mastermind, Ribhav Rishi, through a WhatsApp message to Rajesh Sangwan, Controller, Finance and Accounts, HSAMB, on July 1, 2025. It was followed by a call. Sangwan told the CBI that Agarwal had asked him to put up the proposal from IDFC First Bank. The next day, on July 2, 2025, both Dar and Ribhav Rishi visited HSAMB.
The proposal was then submitted the same day through the cashier, despite there being 11 existing HSAMB accounts with various banks. Through a chain of officers, it reached the Chief Administrator of the Board, who approved it. The CBI found that no approval from the Finance Department was obtained and no quotations from any bank regarding the interest rate or comparative analysis were received.
For the transfer of funds, the proposal was moved through a chain of officers that reached Pooja Bharti, Secretary, HSAMB, who approved it. Accordingly, Rs 9.5 crore was transferred from the Yes Bank account to the IDFC First Bank account. The CBI papers state that no rationale was provided in the notesheet for the transfer of money. Later, a cancelled cheque was used to siphon off Rs 10 crore from the account.
The Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad's (HSSPP) account was opened in IDFC First Bank on January 4, 2025. It gets funds from the Centre and state under Samagra Shiksha. It already had bank accounts with IDBI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The account was opened following a proposal from mastermind Ribhav Rishi of IDFC First Bank, dated December 17, 2024. Agarwal, during his posting as Principal Secretary, School Education, marked the proposal to Jitender Kumar (2010-batch IAS officer), Director, Secondary Education, and Randhir Singh, Controller, Finance and Accounts, on December 19, 2024. On December 20, 2024, accountant Rakesh prepared a notesheet for depositing Rs 100 crore in IDFC First Bank, claiming higher rate of interest than Kotak Mahindra and IDBI. The same day, it was marked to Randhir Singh and then to Jitender Kumar.
Jitender Kumar then marked it to the Principal Secretary, who approved the proposal. The CBI found that no approval was sought before opening the account and no quotations were invited from other empanelled banks. The cap on deposit in IDBI First Bank was breached with a Rs 100-crore transfer from Kotak Mahindra Bank-approved by Agarwal, and the account was opened in Sector 32, Chandigarh, violating proximity norms. The actual loss was calculated at Rs 53.86 crore, including interest.
The account of MMGAY 2.0 Panchayat Director was opened on September 26, 2025, at IDFC First Bank. There was a loss of Rs 48.90 crore over 16 fraudulent debit transactions and three credit entries associated with the account.
The CBI found that over 15 debit transactions, cheques were used purportedly bearing the signature of 2007-batch IAS officer DK Behera, who served as Director General, Development and Panchayats Department, from May 29, 2023, to December 1, 2025. According to the CBI papers, two of the cheques were dated December 22, 2025, and January 12, 2026, both of which were issued when he was not in the department. The genuinity of the signatures is yet to be proved through forensic examination.
IAS Saket Kumar (2005-batch), who served as Commissioner and Secretary, Development and Panchayat Department, from June 16, 2025, to April 10, 2026, is yet to be questioned on the opening of the account.
From the Haryana Labour Welfare Board's (HLWB) IDFC account, there were 12 fraudulent debit transactions worth Rs 50.05 crore. IAS Mani Ram Sharma, who served as Labour Commissioner from April 12, 2023, to August 7, 2024, and then from August 12, 2024, to October 28, 2025, is being questioned.