Panchkula court denies bail to key accused in ₹72-crore HSVP scam

The case was registered at the Sector 7 police station on March 7, 2023, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)

The court of additional sessions judge Neeru Kamboj has dismissed two bail applications filed by Sunil Kumar Bansal, 64, a resident of Sector 17, Panchkula, and Naveen Kumar, 32, of Sonipat, in connection with the ₹72 crore embezzlement case involving the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP).

The incident came to light after a complaint was received at the DCP office on March 1, 2023, from HSVP officials (Representational Image)

The case was registered at the Sector 7 police station on March 7, 2023, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy, along with relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act). According to the prosecution, the incident came to light after a complaint was received at the DCP office on March 1, 2023, from HSVP officials, alleging that undue payments were made between 2015 and 2019 from a bank account falsely opened in the name of HSVP.

Investigations revealed that no such official account existed. Instead, a fraudulent account had been opened at Punjab National Bank, Manimajra, on May 30, 2015, in the name of the “accounts officer, HUDA (HQ), Panchkula”. The mobile number linked to this account was traced to Bansal, who served as accounts officer (cash)/senior accounts officer during that period. The bogus account was closed on February 27, 2019, just before Bansal’s retirement, after transactions amounting to ₹72 crore were made to multiple parties. No record of these payments existed in HSVP’s official books.

An SIT investigation found that Bansal, in collusion with other officials and bank staff, had orchestrated the large-scale embezzlement. It was revealed that ₹68.85 crore had been siphoned off from HSVP’s cash branch during Bansal’s tenure (2005–2019), with ₹46 crore and ₹22 crore transferred from two separate HSVP accounts to around 85 different accounts.

Bansal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 9 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Subsequent arrests in July 2025 included co-accused Vijay Kumar, Manoj Pal, Yash Bindal, Naveen Kumar, Bharat, Naresh Kumar, Harish Kumar, Surender Kumar, Ramkesh Singh, and Harkesh Sharma.

The prosecution argued that Naveen had benefitted from the fraud, with ₹38 lakh transferred to his relatives’ accounts from the disputed HSVP account. Defense counsels claimed their clients were falsely implicated, but the court rejected the plea. “...Considering the nature and gravity of the allegations and the applicant’s alleged complicity in an economic offence involving crores of public funds, no case is made out to grant bail,” the court observed in its November 7 order, dismissing both bail applications.