IAS Officer Held in ₹60.54 Crore Haryana Embezzlement Case
Pankaj Aggarwal arrested for alleged misappropriation of government funds linked to the larger ₹657-crore IDFC First Bank scam.
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 23rd June: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested senior IAS officer Pankaj Aggarwal for allegedly embezzling ₹60.54 crore from accounts of the Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad (HSSPP) and the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board (HSAMB) maintained with IDFC First Bank.
According to the CBI, Aggarwal, who was serving as Principal Secretary in the Haryana government’s School Education and Agriculture departments at the time, was arrested on Monday after investigators found that bank accounts were opened at IDFC First Bank’s Sector-32 branch in Chandigarh in violation of state government guidelines. Funds were allegedly transferred into these accounts beyond permissible limits and later siphoned off through fraudulent transactions.
The agency said the misappropriation caused a net loss of ₹60.54 crore to the Haryana government and forms part of a larger ₹657-crore scam involving government accounts of Haryana and the Chandigarh Administration maintained at the bank.
CBI officials stated that the overall fraud resulted in losses of ₹504 crore to the Haryana government and ₹153 crore to the Chandigarh Administration. The investigation was taken over by the agency following a reference from the Haryana government.
The probe has revealed that funds from eight Haryana government departments were allegedly diverted through shell entities. The CBI has already filed a chargesheet against 17 accused, including six bank officials, three government officials, two companies and six private individuals.
Aggarwal is scheduled to be produced before a special CBI court. The agency said incriminating evidence against him has been collected during the investigation.
The CBI is also investigating related cases involving Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL), Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and CREST Chandigarh. Chargesheets have been filed in both cases, while one senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer has already been arrested in connection with the CREST case.
Earlier, senior IAS officer R.K. Singh was arrested in a related case involving alleged misappropriation of funds in the Municipal Corporation of Panchkula and is currently in judicial custody.
