Mumbai police uncovered a payroll fraud involving Rs 6.5 crore paid to non-existent employees (Representative image)

MUMBAI: Nearly Rs 6.5 crore was allegedly paid as salaries to 10 ‘employees’ of the Mumbai police department between 2019 and 2020, but a probe six years later has revealed that the individuals existed only on paper.The alleged Rs 6.41-crore payroll fraud came to light during the migration of employee data from the department’s old Sevarth salary portal to a new software system.Investigation found that 10 non-police personnel had been repeatedly shown as employees in official records, with monthly salaries being credited to their bank accounts.The 10 fictitious employees named in the FIR are Ramdas Bhogle, Sudhakar Kadam, Sarju Yadav, Bhagwat Bhosale, Gunaji Khavkar, Mahadev Haldankar, Rajendra Sonar, Uttam Thorat, Suryakant Patil and Pandurang Kadam.A case has been registered ant Santa nagar annd crime branch has taken over the probe.Five clerical staff have been charged for cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.The department has suspended two staffers over allegations that they created fake Service IDs and Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (DCPS) IDs to facilitate the payment of unauthorised salaries.