Deputy Vice President of Kotak Mahindra Bank Pushpender Singh, in collusion with Senior Accounts Officer of Panchkula MC Vikas Kaushik, and Relationship Manager Dilip Raghav updated the email IDs and phone numbers with accounts of the local body.
The MC’s authorised account was opened on October 27, 2018, with email ID mcpanchkula@gmail.com in the name of the Executive Officer (Municipal Council).
The first illegal account was opened on May 28, 2020, using the email ID mcpanchkola@gmail.com. The letter ‘u’ in ‘panchkula’ was replaced with ‘o’. This, too, was opened in the name of the Executive Officer, but was closed on April 6, 2022.
The second illegal account was opened on June 8, 2022, again in the name of the Executive Officer, and the email ID was listed as mcpanchkola@gmail.com. The fourth account, a legal one, was opened on August 26, 2022. Here too, the email ID was wrong.
Subsequently, an updated mobile number was listed for the accounts, registered in the name of a Rajpura resident. The accused Kapil and Dahra made it available to Singh and Kaushik.
The accused, on November 11, 2023, created a second ID mcpanchkula.sao@gmail.com, and by creating a fake letter, updated the email ID with Kotak bank. The email modification form bore Kaushik’s signature, while that of Deputy Municipal Commissioner Deepak Sura was forged.
The MC did not receive accurate information regarding account transactions, nor did the accused set up any net banking or alert systems for the accounts, said the chargesheet.
The landline number was updated on the accounts, which was a common number in the MC, but not associated with any official. It was done so that intimation to the MC could be shown to have been given on the number.
The chargesheet has so far been submitted against nine accused.