The Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has arrested 12 individuals, including a jeweller and a realtor, in a ₹597-crore scam involving the embezzlement of government funds from Haryana state departments routed through an IDFC First Bank branch in Chandigarh.
The scam centres on IDFC First Bank's branch in Sector 32, Chandigarh, where funds belonging to at least eight Haryana government departments were meant to be parked as fixed deposits (FDs).
However, the money was systematically siphoned off through 12 accounts, 10 at IDFC First Bank and two at AU Small Finance Bank.
Investigations have found that former bank employees Ribhav Rishi and Abhay Kumar were central to the operation, using shell entities to layer the diverted government money.
A major breakthrough came with the arrest of Vikram Wadhwa, a Chandigarh-based hotelier and real estate developer, who had been evading law enforcement since the scam surfaced.
Wadhwa alleged that Ribhav Rishi had proposed routing government funds through companies he controlled, assuring him that 'reverse entries could be made into the government accounts whenever required.'
The investigation team has raided 16 locations, seizing over 25 electronic devices, six luxury vehicles, and identifying 10 properties suspected to have been acquired using proceeds of crime.
