The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been adroit in cracking down on the Haryana bank scam. Three chargesheets have been filed, 16 people including three IAS officers arrested, and the agency has named 37 accused including three more IAS officers.
Remarkably, not a single minister or politician has been named as complicit in the Rs 634 crore embezzlement. That is the amount of public money siphoned off through multiple bank accounts and shell companies, with the help of officials of two private banks. This, in less than two years.
The scam did not come to light through an audit, a regulator or a whistleblower. It surfaced in February 2026 when a Haryana government department sought to close its account at IDFC FIRST Bank and transfer the balance elsewhere. During reconciliation, officials discovered that the actual balance was far lower than the amount the department believed it held. Similar discrepancies were then found in other government-
linked accounts. IDFC FIRST Bank disclosed the issue to regulators on 22 February 2026. According to investigators, funds meant to remain in government accounts or in fixed deposits had allegedly been diverted through unauthorised transactions. The Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau registered an FIR, and because of the scale of the fraud, the Haryana government later recommended a CBI investigation.
The agency has arrested senior officials, including IAS officers Pankaj Agarwal, Ram Kumar Singh and Pradeep Kumar.
The modus operandi was remarkably mundane. Government accounts were opened in two private banks, the bulk of it in IDFC FIRST Bank and a smaller number in AU Small Finance Bank, without mandatory approvals. Despite existing rules and restrictions, funds were transferred. Fixed deposits were created on paper while the money was diverted elsewhere. False debit entries were made and approved. Shell companies received funds. Some of the officials allegedly approved transactions ‘as directed’ by seniors (against the rules).
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