In a major breakthrough in the Rs 83-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case, Chandigarh Police have arrested Sukhwinder Abrol, Project Director of the Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST), sources told The Tribune on Sunday.Abrol was arrested after an investigation established that a significant portion of the CREST funds siphoned off to shell companies was subsequently funnelled into his personal bank accounts and those of his relatives and associates.The FIR in the case — dated March 12, 2026 — was registered at Police Station EOPS, Sector 17, on the complaint of the Chief Executive Officer of CREST, Sector 19. The fraud involves a cheating of Rs 83,04,85,582 crore and was originally registered against three IDFC First Bank officials — Ribhav Rishi, Abhay Kumar and Seema Dhiman.After his arrest, Abrol was produced before the duty magistrate, who granted Chandigarh Police five days of police custody. Investigation to trace the complete cash trail and establish the role of other CREST employees is underway.The FraudThe police had earlier revealed before a Chandigarh court that Rishi, who served as branch manager of the IDFC First Bank’s Sector 32 branch between 2023 and 2025, had opened CREST’s bank accounts at the branch with the connivance of society officials.Funds to the tune of over Rs 75 crore were lying in these accounts at the time. Three shell firms — CAPCO Fintech, RS Traders, and Swastik Desh Project — were created to siphon the funds.Money diverted from CREST’s bank accounts to these shell firms was traced back to the accounts of Abrol, his family members, and close contacts, investigators found.The Chandigarh Police had earlier produced the three arrested bank officials — Rishi, Kumar and Dhiman, who were lodged in Ambala Jail — before a Chandigarh court on a production warrant for interrogation in two IDFC First Bank fraud cases involving the MC and CREST.The court had granted seven-day police custody. The police had also named top Smart City Project officials in the case, telling the court that the shell companies were used to pay off senior officials.The arrest of Abrol, a CREST insider, marks the first direct custodial breakthrough within the society itself and significantly deepens the fraud investigation into Chandigarh’s smart city apparatus.