Panchkula Municipal Corporation discovered that ₹145 crore in fixed deposits at Kotak Mahindra Bank had quietly become ₹12.86 crore, a depreciation rate that even crypto would find ambitious.
When Panchkula MC asked Kotak Mahindra Bank to transfer a matured FD worth ₹58 crore on March 24, the bank essentially replied with the financial equivalent of "new phone, who dis?" According to MC records, 16 FDs worth ₹145.03 crore with a maturity value of ₹158.02 crore should have existed. The bank's March 16 statement showed one account at ₹2.18 crore against an expected ₹50.07 crore. Then came the coup de grace: the bank informed that no live term deposits existed at all, and the total balance was a modest ₹12.86 crore. Relationship manager Dileep Kumar Raghav was arrested, while key accused Rajat Dahra allegedly funneled ₹70 crore to personal accounts via benami routes — a scheme running undetected since the COVID era, proving that the pandemic's most durable legacy may be the cover it provided for financial crime.