Cops cheat Cops: Ghost employee scam hits Mumbai Police

Mumbai: A payroll fraud has come to light in the Mumbai Police force, with officials uncovering that ₹6.41 crore was paid as salaries to 10 fictitious employees between 2019 and 2020.

The fraud was detected during the transfer of payroll records, in which it was found that 10 non-police personnel were repeatedly shown as employees in the North Regional Division and received monthly salaries in bank accounts opened in their names, officials said, adding that a case has been registered against five staffers of the department in this connection.

A PTI report said the unauthorised salary transactions were carried out during two periods, December 2019 to February 2020 and June to September 2020.

According to the Samta Nagar police, ministerial-level clerical staff allegedly fabricated attendance registers and other official records to create 'ghost' employees and include outsiders on the department's payroll.

The fictitious names listed in the First Information Report (FIR) were Ramdas Bhogle, Sudhakar Kadam, Sarju Yadav, Bhagwat Bhosale, Gunaji Khavkar, Mahadev Haldankar, Rajendra Sonar, Uttam Thorat, Suryakant Patil and Pandurang Kadam, they said.

A case has been registered against five officials, who were posted at the time of the alleged fraud. Those named in the FIR are former administrative officers Ramkishan Goswami, Nagesh Talvadekar and Vijaya Chavan, Head Clerk Ajay Rathod, and Senior Clerk Amol Meshram.

They have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.

The Mumbai Police have suspended Chavan and Meshram, alleging that they created fake Service IDs and Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (DCPS) IDs to facilitate payment of salaries to the 10 fictitious employees.

As part of the suspension conditions, the duo has been barred from taking up private employment or business, directed to submit periodic declarations for subsistence allowance and prohibited from leaving the Brihanmumbai jurisdiction without prior permission.

Police are now investigating the identities of the 10 purported employees and attempting to establish who operated the bank accounts into which the salaries were credited. Further investigation is underway.