Chandigarh, June 30 (IANS) The CBI arrested Pardeep Kumar, IAS, former Member Secretary of Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), in connection with the misappropriation of Rs 169 crore in government funds from the IDFC First Bank branch in Sector-32 here, an official said on Tuesday.

An investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed that the actions of Pardeep Kumar, as Member Secretary, had a direct nexus with the fraud, according to an official statement.

Before the present arrest, the CBI had arrested two other senior officers in connection with the case, it said.

The CBI said Pardeep Kumar himself handled the entire investment-related work, and funds belonging to the HSPCB were sent for fixed deposits with IDFC First Bank, far in excess of the prescribed limits.

For creating the fixed deposits, the funds of HSPCB were first transferred into an account opened at IDFC First Bank, Sector 32 Branch, Chandigarh. Surprisingly, the department could produce no record regarding the opening of this account, said the CBI.

The conspiracy was so deep that the account was opened without any approvals, and funds were transferred into it in the name of creating fixed deposits, it said.

The investigation conducted so far has revealed that no fixed deposits were created in this bank. Instead, fraudulent debit transactions were carried out from this account, resulting in the misappropriation of government funds and causing a net loss of approximately Rs 169 crore to the Government of Haryana, the CBI said.

It is believed that this represents the single largest financial loss suffered by any of the affected Haryana government departments in the overall scam.

The CBI said that Pardeep Kumar had been evading interrogators for some time and was not joining the investigation despite repeated efforts.

He was arrested after the CBI successfully traced his whereabouts, the statement said.

It may be recalled that the CBI had taken over the investigation from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Haryana, at the request of the State Government.

The fraud relating to HSPCB forms part of a larger banking fraud at the Sector-32 Branch of IDFC First Bank, Chandigarh, wherein government funds amounting to approximately Rs 504 crore belonging to eight departments of the Government of Haryana were allegedly siphoned off through forged/non-existent Fixed Deposits and fraudulent debit transactions, and subsequently routed through shell entities.

So far, the CBI has filed chargesheets against 17 accused in the Haryana case, including six bank officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, three public servants of the Government of Haryana, two companies and six private individuals.

–IANS

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