On the day of his superannuation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested IAS officer Pardeep Kumar, the then Member Secretary of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), in connection with the Rs 657-crore Haryana bank scam.Prior to Kumar’s arrest, the CBI had already arrested two IAS officers, Ram Kumar Singh and Pankaj Agarwal, in connection with the case.The HSPCB account was maintained at the Sector-32 branch of IDFC First Bank in Chandigarh.According to the CBI, the investigation has revealed that Kumar’s actions as Member Secretary had a direct nexus with the fraud.“He himself handled the entire investment-related work at his level. Funds for fixed deposits were sent to IDFC First Bank far in excess of the prescribed limits,” the agency said.To create the fixed deposits, HSPCB funds were first transferred to an account opened at IDFC First Bank’s Sector-32 branch in Chandigarh.“Surprisingly, there is no record which the department could produce with regard to opening of this account. The conspiracy was so deep that the account got opened without any approvals and funds were transferred into the account in the name of creating fixed deposits,” the CBI alleged.The investigation conducted so far has revealed that no fixed deposits were created at the bank. Instead, fraudulent debit transactions were allegedly carried out from the account, resulting in the misappropriation of government funds and causing a net loss of approximately Rs 169 crore to the Haryana government.“This represents the single largest financial loss suffered by any of the affected government departments of Haryana in the overall scam,” the CBI claimed.The agency said Kumar had been evading the investigation for some time and was not joining the probe despite repeated efforts. He was arrested after the CBI successfully traced his whereabouts.The CBI had taken over the investigation from the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Haryana, at the request of the state government.So far, the agency has filed chargesheets against 17 accused in the case, including six bank officials of IDFC First Bank and AU Small Finance Bank, three public servants of the Haryana government, two companies and six private individuals.