CBI arrests IAS officer in Panchkula Municipal Corporation fund misappropriation case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Ram Kumar Singh, a 2012-batch IAS officer from Haryana, who was Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation (MC) in Panchkula. He is accused of misappropriating government funds from the MC Panchkula account at the Sector 32, Chandigarh branch of IDFC First Bank.
The CBI statement says that Singh was arrested after an investigation found his "active role," "knowledge and active participation" in the fraud. The former Senior Accountant of MC Panchkula, who was also involved, has already been arrested. The CBI states that the MC Panchkula account was opened in violation of the Haryana Finance Department's guidelines.
The particulars recorded on the account-opening form were allegedly filled out to hide later fraudulent transactions. The investigation found that, in collusion with the accused IDFC First Bank officials, RK Singh, IAS, gave several signed cheques to the bank through intermediaries, claiming they were for opening Fixed Deposits. They used these cheques and diverted them to shell entities controlled and operated by the accused bank officials.
About Rs 79.46 crore was misappropriated from the MC Panchkula account. This is part of a bigger scam at the same IDFC First Bank branch, where Rs 504 crore from eight Haryana Government departments was allegedly siphoned off using fake or non-existent Fixed Deposits and Debit notes, then sent to shell companies.
The CBI took over the investigation from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Haryana, at the request of the State Government. So far in the Haryana case, the CBI has filed charges against 17 people. This group includes 6 bank officials from IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, 3 Haryana government employees, 2 companies, and 6 private individuals.
The CBI has also taken over two related cases from the Chandigarh Union Territory. One involves Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) and the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. ell. In the CREST case, Navneet Saxena, a senior Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer, has already been arrested.
The residences of Ram Kumar Singh in Chandigarh and Karnal were searched on Thursday, and several incriminating documents were recovered.
Ram Kumar Singh was suspended by the Haryana Government in April 2026, along with another IAS officer, Pradeep Kumar, as part of the larger bank fraud investigation. He was Municipal Commissioner of Panchkula from July 2025 to January 2026, when the alleged misappropriation happened. Earlier reports also mentioned a related case involving MC Panchkula's fixed deposits with Kotak Mahindra Bank, where the ACB arrested former Senior Accounts Officer Vikas Kaushik.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also conducting a money-laundering investigation. The arrest of an IAS officer is the first time the CBI has taken a serving or recently posted IAS officer into custody in this large bank fraud case involving several Haryana government bodies.
The CBI has repeated its commitment "to bringing all those responsible to justice and to ensuring that the trail of misappropriated public funds is fully traced." The CBI says the investigation is ongoing, and more details, including court proceedings against the arrested officer, are expected soon.
