Chhattisgarh : AI-assisted Audit Uncovers Rs 2 Crore Salary Fraud In Bastar

Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) : Three policemen were arrested for allegedly embezzling around Rs 2 crore by fraudulently inflating salaries over nearly three years in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district, after an Artificial Intelligence-assisted audit exposed the scam, officials said on Wednesday. The accused were identified as constables Girish Rai, Rajkumar Katlam and Hemant Mathew, they said.

Rai was posted as an assistant in the salary section of the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Jagdalpur, while the other two were posted in different sections there.

Bastar SP Shalabh Kumar Sinha said routine internal and external audits detected irregularities in the salary section, prompting a preliminary inquiry.

"The inquiry revealed that Girish Rai, who was responsible for processing salary bills, edited the soft copies of salary records before they were processed and fraudulently increased the salaries of himself and two other constables. During questioning, he admitted to the offence," Sinha said.

The accused allegedly siphoned off between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore from government accounts between October 2023 and May 2026. Rai, who had been posted in the SP office since 2012 and was appointed on compassionate grounds, is believed to be the mastermind of the fraud, he said.

The investigation also suggested that Rai allegedly inflated salaries of some other employees under the pretext of giving them loans and later received the amount in cash from them as loan repayment, Sinha said.

Police have identified such beneficiaries and have been questioning them to ascertain their role in the alleged conspiracy, he said.

Further investigation is underway into the matter, he added.

Another police official said the fraud remained undetected because police salary expenditure fluctuates frequently due to regular transfers, postings and changes in personnel strength, unlike project-based allocations that undergo routine financial audits.

The accused allegedly withdrew relatively small amounts every month by inflating salaries in their own names and those of a few others, allowing the irregularities to escape detection for several months, the official said.

He said the scam was eventually detected after an audit supported by Artificial Intelligence tools flagged an unusual rise in salary expenditure, leading investigators to scrutinise the payroll records.

A local on Tuesday remanded the three in judicial custody for 14 days, he said.

Based on the findings, a case was registered against the trio at Jagdalpur police station on Monday under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections concerning cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and embezzlement of government funds, he said.