Overview
- The Enforcement Directorate, which searched 12 premises on Wednesday, said it seized forged fixed-deposit records and sale-purchase papers tied to the suspected diversion of municipal money.
- The money-laundering case grows out of a March FIR by Haryana’s Anti-Corruption Bureau that alleged Rs 145 crore in Panchkula Municipal Corporation fixed deposits were misused at Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Sector-11 branch.
- Investigators say bank staff, a former municipal accounts officer and private players opened unauthorized corporation accounts using forged letters and off-the-books email IDs to move funds out of genuine MC accounts.
- The ED named Kotak officials Pushpinder Singh and Dileep Kumar Raghav and ex-MC officer Vikas Kaushik as key accused, and Haryana’s ACB has already arrested Singh and Raghav.
- The agency also cites forged FDRs showing 16 deposits worth Rs 145.03 crore with a maturity value of Rs 158.02 crore, and it is tracing transfers routed through financiers and real estate firms, including flows allegedly sent back to Singh and his wife.