Shifting investigations to the Labour Department, the CBI has arrested an accounts officer and a clerk in the Rs 657-crore bank scam. They were allegedly behind Rs 50.05-crore misappropriation in the bank account of the Haryana Labour Welfare Board (HLWB), which is a part of the scam.
Accounts officer Jugal Kishore and accounts clerk Amit Kumar were produced before the CBI Special Court in Panchkula on Wednesday and sent to two-day police custody.
According to the CBI, Kishore functioned as the accounts officer of the board since August 21, 2024, and was the authorised signatory of the account opened with the IDFC First Bank in Chandigarh.
He allegedly proposed the constitution of the committee for shortlisting the banks and signed all letters, cheques and correspondence with the banks.
The CBI found that he signed the account opening form for the savings account in the IDFC bank. However, the sanction accorded by the competent authority was confined to the opening of a fixed deposit. By opening the savings account, he allegedly enabled the creation of the operable account through which funds were siphoned, claimed the CBI. He signed the fund-transfer letters, including the letter transferring Rs 50 crore into the IDFC bank’s savings account.
The then relationship manager of the bank, Kumar, was the lead generator of the savings account that showed 12 fraudulent debit transactions. Of this, Rs 15.50 crore went to Swastik Desh Projects, Rs 21.11 crore to Capco Fintech Services, and Rs 13.44 crore to SRR Planning Gurus Pvt Ltd, all shell entities floated by the accused.
Chirag Gulati of IDFC bank informed Kishore that the FDs did not exist and Kumar’s services had been terminated, yet he continued to deal with him.
Kumar, an accounts clerk with the board since January 1, 2019, initiated the note-sheet for the investment of the board’s funds in FDs and drafted letters inviting quotations from banks and letters for the opening of FDs. The CBI told the court that he played an active role in the opening of unauthorised savings account and concealment of a fraud of over Rs 50 crore.