Picture this.
A contractual accountant. Mid-level. Not even named in the original FIR.
He walks into court hoping for bail.
He walks out with a hard no.
Meet Sahil Kukkar — former accountant at Chandigarh's CREST (the city's renewable energy body).
The CBI says he sat at the quiet center of an ₹83 crore storm.
₹83 crore. Allegedly siphoned out of IDFC First Bank accounts belonging to a government body.
Not in one big swoop.
But across 150+ fraudulent debit transactions between July 2024 and December 2025.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Until the bucket was empty.
The CBI says the CREST scam isn't a standalone story.
It's part of a much bigger, eerily synchronised pattern:
🏢 ₹83 cr allegedly drained from CREST
🏙️ ₹117 cr from Chandigarh Smart City Limited
🏛️ ₹650+ cr from various Haryana government departments
Same bank. Same playbook. Same shell-entity routing.
A senior IFS officer has already been arrested. 13 accused chargesheeted.
This isn't a leak. It's a faucet.
His lawyers built a neat little fortress:
📝 Not named in the original FIR
🖊️ Not an authorised signatory
💰 Not a beneficiary
🔄 No recovery pending from him
👥 A co-accused already got bail
Just a contractual accountant. No power to move a single rupee.
Sounds reasonable, right?
And the picture shifted completely.
The agency told the court Kukkar wasn't a bystander — he was the gatekeeper who left the gate open.
He supervised CREST's financial affairs through the entire fraud window
His reconciliation statements reflected the disputed transactions
His mobile number was linked to the very bank accounts under probe
Alerts came in. He didn't flag them.
A Rajasthan trip of his? Allegedly paid for by the main accused.
Not a signatory. But allegedly the silence that made the noise possible.
Additional Sessions Judge Arvind Kumar wasn't moved by the parity argument.
The co-accused who got bail? Different role. Different facts.
Kukkar was a CREST insider during the exact window the money vanished.
The ruling was sharp:
⚡ Allegations are serious in nature.
⚡ Witnesses could be influenced.
⚡ Gravity of the offence outweighs the bail plea.
Bail denied.
White-collar fraud rarely needs a mastermind in every chair.
It needs people who see and don't speak.
The accountant who skips the alert. The clerk who signs the form. The middle manager who looks the other way.
That's where ₹83 crore quietly walks out the door.
And these days — courts are starting to notice.
That's all for now!
