Gurugram: A suspended Haryana-cadre IAS officer, who has sought anticipatory bail in the IDFC bank investment fraud case, has claimed he strictly followed all Finance Department guidelines, and that subsequent “irregular” deposits were made on oral instructions of then state pollution control board Chairman Vineet Garg, who is himself under the CBI scanner.
Pardeep Kumar (60), who is ‘on the run’, filed his anticipatory bail plea in the Special CBI court in Panchkula under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita on 26 June. The Haryana government suspended him on 8 April after the alleged fraud came to light. He is due to retire on the last day of this month.
The CBI case, involving the alleged multi-crore fraud related to government funds parked in IDFC First Bank’s Sector 32, Chandigarh branch, was registered on 8 April.
The case has seen the CBI arrest two senior Haryana IAS officers — Ram Kumar Singh and Pankaj Aggarwal.
The CBI has obtained Section 17-A Prevention of Corruption Act sanction to investigate eight IAS officers, including petitioner Pardeep Kumar, and Garg, whom Kumar has blamed in his petition. The central agency has questioned all of them at least once.
Also Read: IDFC fraud wasn’t Rs 570 cr. ED probe reveals Rs 645 cr were siphoned from Haryana govt accounts
What the petition says
Pardeep Kumar served as Member Secretary, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, Panchkula, 31 August 2022 to 10 December 2024. The petition contends that during his tenure, all investments of Board funds were made strictly in accordance with Finance Department guidelines issued on 12 July 2024.
Among other things, the guidelines capped deposits with any first-time empanelled bank at Rs 50 crore.
According to the petition, on 5 March 2025, a proposal was initiated to invest Rs 143.87 crore of the HSPCB surplus funds. After the accounts department obtained interest rate quotes from various empanelled banks, IDFC First Bank quoted the highest callable FD rate of 8.25 percent.
Pardeep Kumar’s noted file recommendation, reproduced in the petition, proposed investing Rs 50 crore in IDFC First Bank, Rs 71.93 crore in HARCO Bank and Rs 21.94 crore in Sarva Haryana Gramin Bank, all within prescribed policy limits.
The 1991-batch IAS officer Garg, as the HSPCB Chairman, approved the proposal with the note “as proposed.”
The petition draws a sharp distinction between this initial investment and what followed.
It states that on five subsequent dates—27 March, 1 July, 30 July, 1 October and 23 October 2025—further investments were made in IDFC First Bank on Garg’s “oral instructions,” by which time the prescribed Rs 50 crore ceiling for a first-time empanelled bank had already been exhausted.
On the October 23 occasion, Garg personally enhanced the proposed investment in IDFC First Bank from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore, the petition states, even though another empanelled bank had quoted a higher rate of return, Kumar has claimed.
The petition states that Garg, upon taking charge as Chairman on 2 December 2024, had directed that FDR investment files be shifted from the e-file system to physical files, a directive implemented from 25 March 2025. It was also on Garg’s subsequent directions that a bank account was opened with IDFC First Bank’s Sector 32, Chandigarh branch, the petition says.
Pardeep Kumar left the department on 10 December 2025 upon his transfer to the State Transport as its Director. The petition points out that even after his departure, a proposal moved by his successor, IAS officer Yogesh Kumar, was revised by Garg on his own authority, underlining, the petition argues, that the pattern of decision-making favourable to IDFC First Bank was driven by the Chairman and not by the Member Secretary.
Once the CBI registered an FIR, the state government suspended Ram Kumar Singh and Pardeep Kumar, while other IAS officers under the scanner were divested of their important departments. Vineet Garg was also moved out of his position as the Chairman, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, to the Printing and Stationery Department as an additional chief secretary on 9 April.
ThePrint reached out to Garg by sending him a PDF file of Pardeep Kumar’s petition, outlining the allegations against him levelled therein, to seek his comments. But there was no response. The story will be updated once he responds.
Yogesh Kumar, meanwhile, told ThePrint, “It would not be appropriate for me to comment on an ongoing investigation.”
The broader ‘fraud’
The IDFC First Bank fraud case originated from a committee inquiry by the Panchayats Department, Haryana, which found that two accounts were opened on 26 September 2025 in IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank under the Mukhya Mantri Grameen Awaas Yojna (MMGAY-2.0) scheme, with Rs 50 crore and Rs 25 crore transferred, respectively.
The inquiry found no approvals from the competent authority for the utilisation of these funds. It further found that cheques processed by the bank bore “forged” signatures, including that of the then HSPCB Director General D.K. Behera, and that debit notes lacked letter numbers and dispatch numbers.
Transaction alerts and confirmations went to a mobile number registered in the name of a Panchayats Department superintendent.
Initially, the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered an FIR at its Panchkula Police Station on 23 February 2026. Later, the Haryana government transferred the case to CBI on 25 March 2026, citing inter-state ramifications, possible transnational diversion of proceeds of crime, and the involvement of public servants and banking officials.
The CBI re-registered the case on 8 April 2026 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
Pardeep Kumar and another IAS officer, Ram Kumar Singh, since arrested by the CBI, were suspended by the state government the same day.
The estimated public exchequer loss at the time of registration was put at over Rs 550 crore, a figure that has since been revised upward to Rs 645-657 crore across eight state government departments as the investigation widened.
Garg, whose appointment as HSPCB Chairman in December 2024 marked the turning point in investment decisions, according to the petition, is among the eight IAS officers against whom the CBI secured the mandatory Section 17-A sanction before proceeding with the corruption probe. All eight have been questioned by the agency.
Bail plea
Pardeep Kumar’s petition argues that the CBI’s own investigation has established that he had no direct or indirect contact with the other accused.
He cites his medical condition, including high blood pressure and diabetes, and invokes Supreme Court judgments—Siddharam Satlingappa Mhetre vs State of Maharashtra (2011) and Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar (2014)—on the right to personal liberty and the threshold required for custodial interrogation.
The petition was filed through advocates S.K. Agnihotri and Shubham Sharma of the District Courts Complex, Panchkula.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: IDFC FIRST Bank fraud: CBI arrests IAS officer who oversaw Assembly, Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana