Mumbai Crime Branch Arrests Officer in Rs 6.41 Crore Police Payroll Scam

The Mumbai Crime Branch arrested Ramkishan Goswami, former Administrative Officer of the North Regional Division, on August 11 over an alleged ₹6.41 crore payroll scam involving 10 fictitious employees in the Mumbai Police salary system. The arrest is the first made in the case after discrepancies were uncovered during the migration of records from the department's old 'Sevarth' payroll system to new software.

Five people have been booked in connection with the investigation: Ramkishan Goswami, Nagesh Talwadekar, Vijaya Chavan, Head Clerk Ajay Rathod, and Senior Clerk Amol Meshram. Among them, Vijaya Chavan and Amol Meshram have been suspended for allegedly creating fake Service IDs and DCPS IDs to make non-existent workers appear legitimate in official records.

According to the preliminary investigation, the alleged financial irregularity occurred during two specific windows: December 2019 to February 2020, and June to September 2020. Despite the 10 individuals never serving in the Mumbai Police, service records were created in their names, and salary payments were regularly generated and credited to linked bank accounts.

Investigators are also examining the resignation of one of the accused, who left his post in 2020–21. In his resignation letter, he reportedly stated that he did not need the job because his wife came from a wealthy family in Punjab and is currently living in Canada. Ministerial staff in the department speculate the resignation was submitted after the accused received an indication that the scam could be exposed.

Following Goswami's arrest, the Crime Branch is working to trace the destination of the ₹6.41 crore diverted through the scheme. Officers are auditing bank records and financial transactions to identify who opened the accounts, who withdrew the money, and whether additional officials were involved. Police are also auditing older payroll records to check if similar ghost employee scams occurred in other departments or during other years.