Panchkula, Aug. 7 -- A special CBI court on Thursday rejected the bail application of suspended 2000-batch IAS officer Pankaj Agarwal, who was arrested on June 22 in the Rs.645-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case. The court observed that the gravity of the allegations, his alleged role, and the ongoing investigation did not warrant his release at this stage. Agarwal is accused of facilitating the opening of unauthorised bank accounts that allegedly enabled the diversion of around Rs.60.54 crore belonging to the Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad (HSSPP) and the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB). The alleged fraud forms part of a much larger scam, with the CBI investigating the siphoning off of nearly Rs.645 crore from various Haryana government departments through fraudulent banking transactions. Opposing the bail plea, the CBI submitted that its investigation had revealed that funds of about Rs.50.54 crore from HSSPP and Rs.10 crore from HSAMB, maintained with IDFC First Bank, were fraudulently transferred to shell entities and subsequently withdrawn as part of a criminal conspiracy involving bank officials and other accused persons. According to the agency, Agarwal was principal secretary, school education between December 10, 2024 and June 16, 2025. During this period, he allegedly approved the opening of a new HSSPP bank account at IDFC First Bank's Sector-32 branch in Chandigarh and facilitated the transfer of Rs.100 crore from an existing Kotak Mahindra Bank account, allegedly in violation of government instructions. The CBI alleged that 101 fraudulent debit transactions worth Rs.182.93 crore and 33 fraudulent credit transactions worth Rs.132.39 crore took place in the account, resulting in a net misappropriation of Rs.50.54 crore, with most of the fraudulent debits occurring during Agarwal's tenure. Rejecting the plea, the court held that considering the nature of the allegations, the gravity of the offence, the role attributed to the accused and the fact that the investigation remains pending, no ground for grant of bail was made out at this stage. The CBI had registered an FIR on April 8 under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Corruption Act after the Haryana government transferred the probe from the state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau, which had initially registered the case on March 22....