Chandigarh, March 24 The Panchkula Municipal Corporation has found discrepancies in its Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs) with a private bank, amounting to nearly Rs 150 crore, a senior official said on Tuesday.
"Some of the FDRs had been with the bank for a long time at the Panchkula branch. The discrepancy was discovered when the bank was asked to transfer the funds upon the maturity of one of the FDRs," said Vinay Kumar, Commissioner of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation.
Following inquiries, discrepancies were also found in other FDRs, involving a total amount of nearly Rs 150 crore, he said over the phone.
"We have reported the matter to the State Vigilance," he said.
This incident follows a case involving the private sector IDFC First Bank, which had recently disclosed a Rs 590-crore fraud committed by certain employees and others at a particular branch in Chandigarh, involving specific accounts of the Haryana state government.
The Haryana State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is currently investigating the matter and has made several arrests.
IDFC First Bank had previously stated that the fraud is "confined to a specific group of government-linked accounts within the Haryana government, operated through the Chandigarh branch," and emphasized that it does not extend to other customers of the branch.
It had also said that it had received a request from a Haryana government department for the closure of its account at a Chandigarh branch and the transfer of funds to another bank.
In the process, the bank observed differences in the balances in the account and the balances mentioned by the Haryana government department.
The discrepancy found was of Rs 490 crore, and an additional Rs 100 crore was identified by the bank, bringing the total discrepancy amount to Rs 590 crore.