An internal inquiry by the Mumbai Police’s north regional division has allegedly uncovered a trail of questionable employee records, excess salary payments, and suspected manipulation of the police payroll system. At the centre of the allegations is a figure of Rs 6.41 crore. But the real mystery is not where the money went, but who allegedly received it and how they entered the payroll system in the first place.
The suspected irregularity surfaced during the migration of police employee data from the old Sevaarth payroll system to the new system. According to the sources, a complaint was submitted by a police officer attached to the north regional division to the Samta Nagar police station, where it raised questions on the process, which threw up discrepancies relating to salary payments made during December 2019 and January and February 2020, and again between June and September 2020.
The complainant in the FIR alleges that people who were not police personnel were shown as police employees and salary payments were processed in their names. The pay and accounts office reportedly sought detailed information regarding the alleged excess payments.
Ten names mentioned in the complaint were allegedly linked to excess salary payments — Ramdas Bhogle, Sudhakar Kadam, Sarju Yadav, Bhagwat Bhosale, Gunaji Khavankar, Mahadev Haldankar, Rajendra Sonar, Uttam Thorat, Suryakant Patil, and Pandurang Kadam. The FIR alleges that the total financial loss to the government arising from the suspected manipulation and alleged misappropriation was Rs 6.41 crore.
This reporter contacted the office of the additional commissioner of police, north regional division, and the joint commissioner of police (law and order), Mumbai, seeking their response to the allegations and the matter under inquiry. Messages requesting their comments were sent, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
The paper trail
According to sources, several officials and employees associated with the administrative and salary sections may have acted in connivance with other beneficiaries. It names former administrative officials Ramkishan Goswami, Nagesh Talwadekar and Vijaya Chavan, along with Chief Clerk Ajay Rathod and a clerk named Amol Meshram.
According to the allegations, the suspected mechanism involved showing individuals who were not police personnel as employees, generating or submitting purportedly false salary records and allegedly using official positions to facilitate payments from government funds.
Inquiry ordered
Considering the seriousness of the matter, the additional commissioner of police, north regional division, appointed DCP Gajanan Rajmane of North Region III as the inquiry officer and ACP and police inspector-rank officials were also assigned to assist in the inquiry. “The investigation examined Sevaarth records, employee service books, salary bills, bank transactions, and the digital trail associated with the alleged payments,” a source said.
Based on the departmental inquiry findings, a case under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 409, 420, 406, 467, 465, 471, 201, 120(B) and 34, was registered at Samta Nagar police station last month and the investigation is underway.
Uncomfortable questions
>> How were fake employee records created?
>> Who verified them?
>> Who approved the salary bills?
>> Who authorised the payments?
>> Which bank accounts received the money?
>> How did the system allow the transactions to continue without triggering an alarm?
Similar scams come to light
Other cases involving alleged manipulation or diversion of police payroll-related funds have also emerged from different parts of Maharashtra. In Dhule, a suspected Rs 1.6-crore payroll fraud at the Police Training Centre allegedly involved manipulation of salary data before it was uploaded to the Sevaarth system. The allegations suggest that salary records were allegedly altered to include unauthorised arrears benefiting certain individuals.
In Latur, another alleged financial irregularity reportedly involved approximately Rs 2.38 crore over a period spanning nearly a decade. A senior police officer, however, stated that these three cases involve different allegations and should not, at this stage, be automatically treated as part of one organised conspiracy.
A common vulnerability
The senior police officer said the incidents in Mumbai, Dhule, and Latur point towards a common vulnerability in the system: the possibility of financial manipulation within administrative and digital payroll processes.”
The officer added, “But the real question is not about these three cases alone but how many such irregularities may have remained undetected? With thousands of police personnel, multiple administrative offices and years of payroll data, even a small number of fictitious employees, unauthorised salary entries or manipulated records could potentially cause substantial losses to the public exchequer.”
‘An important test’
According to the officer, the north division case could prove to be an important test for the department’s internal financial controls. “A comprehensive audit comparing old and new Sevaarth databases, employee service records, appointment documents, salary bills and bank transaction trails could help determine whether these are isolated incidents or indications of a larger systemic vulnerability,” the officer said.
The officer further said, “The police routinely investigate cases involving fake identities, forged documents, bogus bank accounts and financial fraud. If the allegations in the Mumbai case are ultimately established, it would be deeply concerning if similar methods were allegedly used to manipulate the government’s own payroll system.”
The officer added, “If a fictitious or ineligible employee can allegedly exist in the system, receive government funds and remain undetected for an extended period, then the question is not only who benefited from the money. The larger question is who was responsible for verifying the records and monitoring the payments.”
The officer said that the findings of the ongoing investigation would be crucial in determining the extent of the alleged irregularities. “If the allegations are substantiated, the case could lead to a wider examination of payroll and financial control mechanisms across police units in Maharashtra. The priority should be to identify any similar irregularities, strengthen verification systems and ensure that public money is protected,” the officer said.
2019
Year alleged scamsters began manipulating the payroll system to create ‘ghost police personnel’
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