Tribune news service

Chandigarh, November 6

Head constable Naresh Kumar, one of the accused in the alleged salary scam in the Chandigarh Police, surrendered before a local court here today.

The court has given six days remand of the accused to the police.

Case file

• The alleged salary scam was detected when salary accounts of 40 police personnel were found to have been credited with huge money against fake entries of inflated conveyance allowances, ration/food allowances, TA/DA, and other allowances in February last year.
• An FIR was registered at the Sector 3 police station on the basis of a probe ordered by the then Finance Secretary. The probe report had established a loss of over Rs1.01 crore to the state exchequer.

Dikshit Arora, counsel for Naresh Kumar, opposed the remand, claiming that his client had been falsely implicated in the case and he had no role in the alleged scam.

The police had sought 10 days’ remand, stating that they needed to interrogate the accused to find out the details of the scam worth over one crore.

The police claimed that the excess amount was transferred in the salary account of around 156 police personnel.

They claimed that thorough investigation was required to explore how the amount was transferred.

Arora though argued that Kumar had earlier joined the investigation on two occasions and there was nothing to be recovered from him.

He said all the records were available with the police.

The police had earlier arrested two other employees, including a former in-charge of the salary branch and a home guard volunteer with the UT police, in connection with the Rs1.01-crore salary scam, which came to light in February 2020.

Earlier, Kumar reached the district court with his counsel after his bail applications were rejected.

The scam was detected when salary accounts of 40 police personnel were found to have been credited with huge money against fake entries of inflated conveyance allowances, ration/food allowances, TA/DA, and other allowances in February last year.

When the matter came to light, the then Finance Secretary ordered a probe, which indicted some police personnel deputed in the salary branch.

The matter was then handed to a special investigating team under the supervision of SP, Crime.

An FIR was registered at the Sector 3 police station on the basis of the report, which established a loss of over Rs1.01 crore to the state exchequer.

The police said the embezzlement was carried out through two modus operandi – first by taking advantage of many loopholes in the E-Sevaarth portal of the National Informatic Centre and secondly, by preparing bogus bills on account of pay arrears LTC, etc.

The police also claimed that Kumar was earlier called for questioning but he did not disclose anything.

The police said it was a big scam where other actors were to be ascertained.