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How AI exposed Rs20 million police salary scam in India
Salary expenditures kept changing because of frequent transfers; authorities were unable to detect the Dh780,000 (Rs20 million) embezzlement for almost three years
- PUBLISHED: Fri 3 Jul 2026, 6:00 AM
An AI-assisted audit of records led to three policemen being arrested for allegedly embezzling Rs20 million (about Dh780,000) by fraudulently inflating their salaries and those of some other employees in Jagdalpur in central India’s Chhattisgarh state.
This was the first time AI had been used for conducting audits in the state.
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Girish Rai, an assistant in the salary section of the police, allegedly edited the soft copies of the records before they were processed. The salary expenditures keep changing because of the frequent transfers and the authorities could not detect the embezzlement for almost three years. But auditors recently decided to use AI to analyse the salary data, which was huge.
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"The accused would increase salary amounts in records and prepare note sheets accordingly,” Shalabh Kumar Sinha, a senior police officer of Bastar district, told reporters.
“After the excess amount was released, the money was allegedly transferred into their own accounts or accounts controlled by them.” They manipulated the digital salary records, adding more amounts to be debited from government accounts. They had also manipulated employee loan payments, increasing the amount paid to employees and later taking money from them.
India’s home ministry plans to integrate AI tools in the revised version of the Crime and Criminal Tackling Network & Systems (CCTNS 2.0), which connects 17,000 police stations across the country to a centralised online platform.
The National Crime Records Bureau plans to deploy CCTNS 2.0 to various cases including identifying repeat offenders, automatic number plate recognition and identifying criminals by using AI-powered facial recognition technology through CCTVs.
AI is also increasingly being used to detect online crimes through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). The government is also exploring the use of AI, along with IIT Bombay, to analyse behavioural and transactional patterns to identify confirmed ‘mule’ accounts, used by criminals to transfer and launder stolen money.
The ministry is also coordinating with the country’s central bank to tie I4C with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub to get real-time data, enabling banks to stop fraudulent transactions and tackle financial cybercrime.
