Shalarth ID case: State considers judge-led probe into ₹400 crore fraud

Maharashtra may form a judicial committee to investigate a ₹400 crore scam involving over 4,000 bogus teachers receiving salaries for six years.

MUMBAI: In a major development in the ₹400 crore Shalarth ID scam, the Maharashtra government is considering the constitution of a judicial committee to investigate the fraud, under which over 4,000 bogus teachers are estimated to have drawn salaries for nearly six years.

Representative file

A Shalarth ID is a unique, 10-digit identification number assigned to staff and teachers in government and government-aided schools across Maharashtra. It serves as a permanent identifier on the Shalarth portal to manage payroll, service records and personnel data.

During a hearing last week, the Bombay High Court proposed the formation of a committee headed by a retired chief justice or a sitting high court judge to probe the scam, which came to light in May last year. The court has asked the state to respond on whether it agrees to a panel comprising senior police officials from the intelligence wing and cyber cell, along with educationists and a retired vice-chancellor based in Mumbai. The court also said that the special investigation team constituted under the Pune divisional commissioner would assist the judge-led committee.

HT graphic

The scam pertains to the alleged induction of ineligible or non-existent teachers and non-teaching staff from aided schools into the government salary system. It was unearthed last year, with investigations revealing that education officials, including those of the rank of education inspectors, deputy directors and treasury superintendents, acted in connivance with school managements to generate fake IDs and passwords for these individuals.

These bogus employees were then shown as eligible staff and began receiving salaries from the state exchequer. Authorities have identified 632 such fake employees in Nagpur, over 4,000 in Nashik, and several hundred more in Jalgaon, Navi Mumbai and other districts. Of the 4,000 suspected cases, over 830 have been confirmed as bogus employees who drew salaries over multiple years.

Police have arrested government officials and office-bearers of schools in Nagpur, while some officials from the school education department in Nashik and Jalgaon have been suspended.

“The loss to the state exchequer because of the 632 cases in Nagpur alone is ₹140 crore. It is expected to be at least ₹300 crore from other districts, including Nashik. FIRs have been registered against officers and school management personnel, and arrests have already been made. Some of the accused have approached the court, claiming it to be an irregularity and not illegality. We are firm that it is an illegality and will be treated as a crime,” said a senior school department official.

Explaining the modus operandi, the official said recruitments were carried out in aided schools without government approval. “Deputy directors at the district level, who are the competent authorities to approve recruitments, allegedly created fake IDs and passwords on the portal and enrolled teachers using forged documents. In some cases, appointments were backdated by several years, and arrears were drawn from the government, sometimes dating back to 2015–16,” the official said.

Another senior official said the government is yet to take a final call on the high court’s suggestion to set up a judge-led committee. He added that the state has decided to challenge the high court’s direction to continue paying salaries to the teachers and non-teaching staff allegedly involved in the scam.

“It was a strange order. We have maintained that this is a criminal offence, yet the high court has insisted on continuation of salaries. We are moving the apex court against this order,” he said.