Rs 504 crore fraud: Why Haryana rejected CBI’s single plea against 5 IAS officers

The CBI's application allegedly did not conform to the Centre’s standard operating procedure for seeking prosecution sanction against public servants. (File Photo)

The Haryana government has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit separate prosecution sanction requests for each of the five IAS officers named in the Rs 504 crore banking fraud case involving state departments, saying the agency’s application did not conform to the Centre’s standard operating procedure (SOP) for seeking prosecution sanction against public servants.

The move comes amid the CBI probe into allegations that public servants acted in connivance with officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank to divert and misappropriate funds belonging to eight Haryana government departments and public bodies from empanelled banks to selected branches of the two banks.

A senior Haryana government officer told The Indian Express on Tuesday that the central agency had approached the Centre seeking prosecution sanction under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, a legal requirement before a court can take cognisance of certain corruption offences against public servants.

The officer said the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) subsequently sought the state government’s comments on the CBI’s request. “Now, the state government has asked the CBI to submit separate requests instead of a single combined application,” the officer added.

‘CBI must cite role of each IAS officer’

Another senior state government officer confirmed the development, adding that the CBI must clearly establish each officer’s alleged role while seeking prosecution sanction. “For instance, it is not enough to allege that an officer failed to follow a government circular while approving the deposit of a fixed deposit (FD) with a particular bank. That would amount to a procedural irregularity, for which disciplinary rules apply. To establish an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the agency needs specific evidence of a demand for a bribe and proof of the alleged bribe being paid,” the officer explained.

The IAS officers against whom the CBI has sought prosecution sanction include Vineet Garg, a 1991-batch officer and one of the state’s most senior bureaucrats; Pankaj Agarwal, a 2000-batch officer; Mohammad Shayin, a 2002-batch officer; and Saket Kumar, a 2005-batch officer. R K Singh, a 2012-batch officer who was promoted from the Haryana Civil Services, is already under suspension.

The CBI has also sought prosecution sanction against Pradeep Kumar, who was an IAS officer at the time of the alleged offences. He was arrested in June on the day he was due to retire.

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CBI chargesheet filed on September 2

The CBI filed the chargesheet against the IAS officers and other accused before a special CBI court in Panchkula on September 2 this year.

Official sources said the CBI submitted a copy of its chargesheet to the Haryana government while seeking prosecution sanction. The chargesheet details the alleged roles of the officers in the case.

According to the CBI, funds from the accounts of eight government departments and public bodies were allegedly misappropriated and transferred to third parties unconnected with the departments. The money was subsequently routed through multiple bank accounts and converted into cash, with the accused allegedly enriching themselves wrongfully.