Now Reading: Former admin officer held in Mumbai police ghost salary scam
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Former admin officer held in Mumbai police ghost salary scam
The Mumbai crime branch has arrested Ramkishan Ganesh Goswami, a former administrative officer at the Northern Regional Division office, for allegedly paying Rs 6.41 crore as salaries to 10 ghost employees of…
The Story in Brief
The Mumbai crime branch has arrested Ramkishan Ganesh Goswami, a former administrative officer at the Northern Regional Division office, for allegedly paying Rs 6.41 crore as salaries to 10 ghost employees of the city police. The fraud occurred between December 2019 and September 2020. Five more employees have been named as absconding accused: administrative officer Nagesh Talwadekar, clerks Vijay Chavan and Ajay Rathod, and senior clerk Amol Mesharam.
The scam came to light during a migration of employee data from the old Sevarth salary portal to a new software system. Investigators found that 10 non-police personnel were repeatedly shown as employees, with monthly salaries credited to their bank accounts. The money went into 163 accounts at Axis Bank. The case, initially registered at Samta Nagar police station, was transferred to the crime branch on directions of the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
The Indian Opinion
Each ghost-salary scandal triggers the same tired refrain: 'technology will fix this'. But the scam was only caught because the department switched software. That is a backhanded compliment. The real failure was human: an administrative officer and five clerks allegedly collaborated to create 10 fake identities and siphon Rs 6.41 crore through 163 bank accounts. The test now is whether the absconding accused are arrested quickly, or whether the trail goes cold while public money vanishes.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
