An internal inquiry by the Mumbai Police’s north regional division has allegedly uncovered a trail of questionable employee records, excess salary payments, and suspected manipulation of the police payroll system. At the centre of the allegations is a figure of Rs 6.41 crore. But the real mystery is not where the money went, but who allegedly received it and how they entered the payroll system in the first place.

The suspected irregularity surfaced during the migration of police employee data from the old Sevaarth payroll system to the new system. According to the sources, a complaint was submitted by a police officer attached to the north regional division to the Samta Nagar police station, where it raised questions on the process, which threw up discrepancies relating to salary payments made during December 2019 and January and February 2020, and again between June and September 2020.