IAS officer held for siphoning Rs 60 crore from Haryana govt a/cs

CHANDIGARH: CBI has arrested a second IAS officer in Haryana in a funds swindle case in less than a week, picking up Pankaj Aggarwal late Monday. The former principal secretary of the state’s education and agriculture departments is accused of involvement in a Rs 60.5-crore scam. The money was allegedly siphoned off from two sources — Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad (HSSPP) and Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board (HSAMB) — and funnelled through accounts at an IDFC First Bank branch in Chandigarh’s Sector 32. Aggarwal was sent Tuesday by a local court to twoday CBI remand, with the prosecutor saying custodial interrogation was needed to corroborate what he called “incriminating evidence”. CBI: IAS officer gave nod to open a/cs, transferred huge amounts On June 17, former Panchkula municipal commissioner RK Singh was arrested in a related case involving alleged misappropriation of funds from the Haryana town’s civic body linked to the same wider network. Singh remains in judicial custody. According to Central Bureau of Investigation, Aggarwal approved opening of two IDFC accounts in violation of state finance department guidelines, overriding objections from subordinate officials. Large sums were subsequently transferred beyond permissible limits and siphoned through shell entities, causing a loss of Rs 60.5 crore to the state exchequer, the central agency has alleged. Investigators claim the defrauded amount is part of a larger Rs 593-crore scam spanning eight state departments, with the funds routed through the same IDFC First branch. Haryana govt had transferred the investigation to Central Bureau of Investigation from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in April this year.