The police said Vikas Rana reportedly used to prepare salary bills in the name of four senior officials, Jacob, Anil Kumar MV, P Poorjaj and Prakash. These officials were posted with the PMO three years ago but returned to their parent cadre. The accused continued to withdraw salaries in their name.

Officers said Rana had been committing this fraud for at least three years now. He reportedly embezzled the salaries through the Electronic Clearance System (ECS), introduced at the PMO in 2005. The system enables paperless cash transaction by banks. “During ECS transfer, Rana transferred these amounts to his personal bank account,” an official said.

“The matter was noticed much later by PMO officials and was reported to us. An FIR was registered on January 4 this year,” a police officer said. A case against Rana was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by K Salil Kumar, undersecretary at the PMO. He was produced in court today and was remanded to six days in police custody.

“On scrutiny of salary bills of the officials in the accounts department of the PMO, it was found there was some error in the computer-generated printout. Further investigations revealed that Rana had been generating bills,” the FIR states.