The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has received prosecution sanction against five officers of IDFC First Bank and Nalini Malik, former Chief Financial Officer of Smart City Company Limited (CSCL). The sanction relates to two cases involving a scam of over Rs 200 crore of government funds deposited in IDFC First Bank, Sector 32, Chandigarh.
The five bank officers named are Ribhav Rishi, Abhay Kumar, Seema Dhiman, Priyanka Bhatoa, and Anuj Kaushal. The prosecution sanction means the CBI can now move forward with court proceedings against all six accused.
CBI Prosecution Sanction: Two Cases, Two Different Funds
The CBI registered two separate cases in this scam. Each case involves a different pool of government money that was deposited in the same IDFC First Bank branch in Chandigarh.
- First case: A scam of over Rs 83 crore of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy & Science & Technology Promotion Society funds deposited in IDFC First Bank.
- Second case: Misappropriation of funds over Rs 116 crore of Chandigarh Smart City Limited deposited in the same bank.
Together, the two cases add up to a scam of over Rs 200 crore in government funds.
Sanction Orders Placed Before CBI Court
Narender Singh, public prosecutor for the CBI, has placed the sanction orders before the CBI Court. This is a required legal step before the agency can prosecute the accused in court.
Prosecution sanction is a formal permission that allows the CBI to proceed against the accused. Without it, the case cannot move to trial. With the sanction now in hand, the legal process against the former CFO and the five bank officers can advance.
Our Take: Why This Prosecution Sanction Matters
To put it plainly, this is a case about public money — funds meant for Chandigarh's renewable energy body and its Smart City project. Over Rs 200 crore of government funds deposited in a single bank branch is a serious matter, and the fact that the CBI has now secured prosecution sanction against a former CFO and five bank officers shows the investigation has reached a stage where the agency believes it has enough to pursue charges.
In our view, the key thing for readers to note is the scale and the nature of the alleged fraud. This is not a small accounting error. Two separate government entities lost funds — one over Rs 83 crore, another over Rs 116 crore — and both were parked in the same IDFC First Bank branch in Sector 32, Chandigarh. That raises obvious questions about how internal controls at both the bank and the government bodies failed.
The prosecution sanction is not a conviction. All accused remain innocent unless proven guilty in court. But it does mean the case is no longer stuck at the investigation stage. The CBI can now present its evidence before the court and seek trial.
For the people of Chandigarh, this matters because the money involved belongs to public projects — renewable energy and smart city infrastructure. Every rupee lost is a rupee not spent on the services those funds were meant for. The coming court proceedings will be worth watching to see whether the accused are held accountable and whether the funds can be recovered.
We will continue to track this case as it moves through the CBI Court.