Gurugram: The CBI Wednesday arrested IAS officer Ram Kumar Singh in connection with the alleged misappropriation of Rs 79 crore from a Panchkula Municipal Corporation account maintained with IDFC First Bank’s Sector 32 Chandigarh branch.
The 2012-batch officer served as the Panchkula Municipal Corporation’s commissioner between July 2025 and January this year, the period during which the alleged fraud took place.
“The account was opened in violation of the finance department guidelines of the Haryana government. The particulars in the account opening form were entered in a manner designed to conceal the fraudulent transactions intended to be carried out subsequently,” a CBI spokesperson told ThePrint.
Singh allegedly handed over multiple signed cheques to bank officials through middlemen, ostensibly for opening fixed deposit accounts. The funds were debited using these cheques, but no fixed deposits were ever created. The debited amounts were instead routed to shell entities controlled by the accused bank officials, according to the central agency.
The CBI spokesperson said that the IAS officer and the senior accountant of Panchkula civic body were aware of the misappropriation and were active participants.
“Investigation conducted so far revealed the active role of RK Singh,” the spokesperson further said, adding that the agency also searched Singh’s residences in Chandigarh and Karnal and recovered several incriminating documents.
The Panchkula Municipal Corporation senior accountant, who is also named in the case, was arrested earlier.
Before his suspension in April, Singh was posted as special secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, and additional CEO of the Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority.
On 8 April, the Haryana government placed Singh and another IAS officer—Pradeep Kumar of the 2011 batch—under suspension through separate orders issued by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, without citing specific reasons.
Kumar was Director of state transport and special secretary in the Transport Department before his suspension. He had served as member secretary of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board from August 2022 to December 2025, a tenure under scrutiny for disputed fixed deposit transactions.
The ‘scam’
The alleged Rs 79 crore Panchkula Municipal Corporation fraud is part of a much larger racket centred around the Sector 32 branch of IDFC First Bank in Chandigarh. Eight Haryana government departments lost a total of Rs 556.15 crore in the IDFC First Bank case.
The worst-hit was the Haryana State Pollution Control Board at Rs 222.03 crore, followed by MC Panchkula at Rs 81.03 crore, Haryana Labour Welfare Board at Rs 54.29 crore, Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited at Rs 54.20 crore, Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad at Rs 54.05 crore, Haryana Rural Development Fund Administration Board at Rs 49.84 crore, Municipal Council Kalka at Rs 30.64 crore, and Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board at Rs 10.07 crore.
IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, both private sector lenders, became the conduit for this fraud, with government funds meant for fixed deposits siphoned off through forged or non-existent FDs and debit notes and routed to shell companies.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the Enforcement Directorate found that funds were diverted through a shell company named Swastik Desh Projects, operated by partners Swati Singla and Abhishek Singla, and subsequently laundered through jewellers’ accounts using fake billing to simulate gold purchases.
The CBI registered an FIR in the case on 8 April, taking over from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, which had filed its initial FIR on 23 February. So far, 17 accused have been chargesheeted in the Haryana leg of the case, including six bank officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, three Haryana government public servants, two companies, and six private individuals.
The CBI has separately taken over two cases from Chandigarh, one involving Chandigarh Smart City Limited and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, and another involving CREST Chandigarh. One chargesheet each has been filed in both. A senior IFoS officer has already been arrested in the CREST case.
On 24 February, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had announced that Rs 556 crore, including Rs 22 crore in interest, had been recovered from IDFC First Bank and deposited back into Haryana government accounts. On 30 March, AU Small Finance Bank returned Rs 25 crore to the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited.
The AU Small Finance Bank later moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court where it alleged that the bank was coerced to refund the money though it had followed all the banking norms and the money had been siphoned off with the connivance of the government’s own officials.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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