MUMBAI: The city crime branch probing the police salary scam where nearly Rs 6.5 crore was allegedly paid as salaries to 10 ghost employees of the city police, arrested a former administrative officer of the Northern Regional Division office.The unit 12 of the crime branch arrested Ramkishan Ganesh Goswami (61), police have identified five more employees involved in the scam namely Nagesh Talwadekar a administrative officer, clerks Vijay Chavan, Ajay Rathod and senior clerk Amol Mesharam who have been shown as absconding accused.Goswami was arrested after investigators located him at his residence in Kanjurmarg East.The Rs 6.41-crore payroll fraud came to light during the migration of employee data from the department’s old Sevarth salary portal to a new software system.The internal inquiries found that 10 non-police personnel had been repeatedly shown as employees in official records, with monthly salaries being credited to their bank accounts.The 10 fictitious employees named in the FIR are Ramdas Bhogle, Sudhakar Kadam, Sarju Yadav, Bhagwat Bhosale, Gunaji Khavkar, Mahadev Haldankar, Rajendra Sonar, Uttam Thorat, Suryakant Patil and Pandurang Kadam.Police said Goswami, who was working as an Administrative Officer and Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) at the Northern Regional Division during the period when the alleged fraud took place.An inquiry was ordered after discrepancies in salary payments were detected during the transfer of employees from the old service system to a new system.The alleged fraud occurred between December 2019 and September 2020 The inquiry allegedly revealed that 10 fake service IDs had been created in the names of persons who were not police personnel.Police said salary bills were subsequently prepared and approved in the names of these fictitious employees.The excess salary amount of Rs 6.41 crore was allegedly transferred through Axis Bank into 163 bank accounts belonging to non-police personnel.The investigation was initially registered at Samta Nagar police station under sections 409, 420, 406, 467, 465, 471, 201, 120(B) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.On the directions of the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, the investigation was later transferred to the crime branch.During the probe, police obtained documents from the Northern Regional Division, including records showing the accused’s posting and responsibilities, service-ID creation forms, salary bills, cash-book entries and correspondence with banks regarding salary payments.Investigators also examined and imaged the computer system of the Pay Branch.
