Chandigarh Municipal Corporation flags Rs 116-crore security fraud; FIR filed

The Chandigarh Police on Monday registered a case on a complaint filed by Chandigarh municipal corporation which claimed that the fixed deposit receipts (FDRs) worth Rs 116.84 crore issued by a manager of a private bank were fake.

The civic body said that it detected the fraud while transferring funds from the Chandigarh Smart City Limited to it in a dedicated account in IDFC First bank.

"A complaint has been received from Municipal Corporation (MC), Chandigarh, that while transferring funds from the Chandigarh Smart City Limited to the MC, a dedicated account was opened in IDFC First Bank.

"In this regard, FDRs were issued by the IDFC First bank manager. Upon verification it was found that these FDs were fake. The FDs total amounts to Rs 116.84 crore," the police said in a statement.

The police said they have filed a case under sections 318(4) (cheating), 336 (3) (forgery) 338 (forgery of valuable securities, 340(2) (fraudulent use of forged documents), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 316(5) (criminal breach of trust) under the Bharatiya Nayay Sanhita.

The police is investigating any involvement of the bank and municipal corporation employees.

Last month, Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case in connection with the Rs 590-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case.

Private sector IDFC First Bank had earlier disclosed a Rs 590-crore fraud committed by certain employees and others at a particular branch in Chandigarh in a specific set of Haryana state government accounts.

A case was lodged under Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and several sections related to fraud and forgery.

Before the FIR was filed, a committee formed by the director of the development and panchayats department of Haryana recommended a police investigation after uncovering forgery and procedural lapses involving officials from both IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank.

IDFC First Bank said the fraud was "confined to a specific group of government-linked accounts within the Haryana government operated through the said branch in Chandigarh" and did not extend to other customers of the Chandigarh branch.

The bank said it had received a request from a Haryana government department for the closure of its account at a Chandigarh branch and transfer of funds to another bank.

In the process, the bank observed differences in the balances in the account and the balances mentioned by the Haryana government department.

The discrepancy observed was of Rs 490 crore, and an additional Rs 100 crore was identified by the bank, taking the total discrepancy amount to Rs 590 crore.