Chandigarh: The CBI on Wednesday filed its third chargesheet in the ₹593-crore Haryana govt funds misappropriation case, naming 19 suspects, including six IAS officers, four bank officials and nine other state govt officials. The number of those chargesheeted in the case has risen to 37.The IAS officers named in the chargesheet are Mohd Shayin (commissioner and secretary, housing-for-all & PHE, with additional charge of finance), Dr Saket Kumar (commissioner & secretary, archives department), Pardeep Kumar (former PCB secretary), Vineet Garg (ACS-printing & stationery department), Ram Kumar Singh (former commissioner, Panchkula Municipal Corporation) and Pankaj Agarwal (former principal secretary, school education). Pardeep Kumar, Singh and Agarwal are in custody.According to the chargesheet filed before Special Judge Vijayant Sehgal in Panchkula, a section of govt officials, in connivance with officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, orchestrated a fraud in which funds belonging to eight state departments and organisations were diverted from empanelled banks into specified branches of these two private banks.According to CBI, the accused allegedly violated finance department guidelines relating to financial prudence and fraud prevention and siphoned off funds through fraudulent transactions. The diverted money was allegedly transferred to third parties having no connection with govt departments, layered through multiple bank accounts, and eventually converted into cash, resulting in wrongful enrichment of the accused, says the chargesheet.The bank officials named in the chargesheet are Shamim Ahmed Dar, Sudha Goyal and Kuldeep Singh of IDFC First Bank and Charanjeet Singh Randhawa of AU Small Finance Bank. The nine other govt officials are associated with development and panchayat department, state pollution control board, Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd, Panchkula and Kalka municipal corporations, Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad, Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board and Haryana Labour Welfare Board.All these departments and organisations are identified as having suffered losses because of the scam.CBI has invoked BNS charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, use of forged documents, falsification of accounts, criminal breach of trust, destruction of evidence and abetment under BNS, besides provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act relating to bribery and criminal misconduct.CBI, which took over the probe from Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau at the request of state govt, filed two earlier chargesheets, naming 18 persons, including bank officials, govt employees, private individuals and companies.So far, the agency has conducted 54 searches, arrested 26 suspects and seized gold worth around ₹20 crore.The CBI has separately taken over two related cases — one involving Chandigarh Smart City Ltd and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, and the other Chandigarh Renewal Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST). Chargesheets have been filed in both cases.The agency said investigation will continue against other suspects and accused in all three cases, with the focus on unearthing the complete trail of the allegedly misappropriated public funds and proceeds of crime.
