It began as a routine audit of travel allowance bills, but turned into one of the most embarrassing scandals to hit the police department in years, leading to the death of a young constable. An alleged Rs 3.5-crore Travel Allowance scam has been detected in the 6th Battalion of the Special Armed Force (SAF) in Jabalpur, revealing a well-oiled fraud that ran undetected for years. One of the accused, Constable Abhishek Jharia, has died by suicide days after the scam surfaced.
A First Information Report has since been registered against Abhishek and LDC clerk Satyam Sharma, who is believed to be the architect of the fraud. Sharma has been on the run since the investigation started.
Investigators say the scam was not an isolated lapse but a systematic operation running since 2018-19.
Fake TA bills were generated showing constables on official duty outside the district, while they were in fact present in Jabalpur.
Payments were cleared repeatedly for the same periods and documents were allegedly manipulated during verification by uploading black-and-white images on the official portal. Even the One-Time Passwords required for payments were accessed internally, pointing to a complete breakdown of checks and balances.
What initially appeared to be a Rs 2-crore fraud, has now expanded to more than Rs 3 crore. Officials have warned that the figure may rise further.
A four-member internal inquiry committee of the 6th SAF Battalion has found the involvement of at least 12 constables whose bank accounts showed deposits wildly disproportionate to their salaries.
The State Finance Intelligence Cell, acting on the directions of the Commissioner of Treasury and Accounts, has found accounts carrying balances up to 200 times the monthly salary of the personnel concerned, with around Rs 10 lakh credited into each account purely through TA bills.
The money trail has revealed disturbing disparities. Abhishek Jharia alone received approximately Rs 55 lakh through 582 TA bills, even though his total salary and arrears over seven years amounted to just Rs 26 lakh.
In another case, Nitesh Kumar Patel drew Rs 30.51 lakh in TA payments against Rs 24.67 lakh in salary during the same period. Investigators say these patterns expose a deliberate misuse of the allowance system rather than clerical error.
According to the probe, Satyam Sharma offered commissions of over 50 per cent to route fraudulent payments through select accounts.
To avoid scrutiny, he allegedly collected large portions of the money in cash rather than through bank transfers.
During the investigation, only Rs 2.60 lakh was found in Sharma's account, reinforcing suspicions that most of the proceeds were siphoned off in cash.
Soon after the probe began, Sharma disappeared. His wedding card surfaced in Chhindwara, dated November 22, without any official intimation to the department.
As the scale of the fraud became evident, investigations were launched on two fronts. SAF Commandant Siddharth Chaudhary formed a three-member inquiry team, while Collector Raghavendra Singh formed a six-member special committee headed by District Panchayat CEO Abhishek Gehlot.
Statements of more than 20 personnel have been recorded, and over 20 bank accounts have been frozen as investigators attempt to map the full extent of the scam.
The Ranjhi police station has registered a criminal case against 15 employees under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and a detailed investigation is in progress.
Station in-charge Umesh Golhani said Abhishek's death was examined from all angles, including suicide, accident, and the possibility of murder. With about 80 per cent of the investigation complete, the police believe Abhishek panicked as the scam closed in on him, though officials stress that final conclusions will be drawn only after the remaining probe.
