PUNE, July 29 -- The Nashik Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested a BJP-linked education trust director in connection with the Rs.160-crore Shalarth ID fraud, in which forged appointment approvals and fake entries in Maharashtra's teacher payroll system were allegedly used to siphon off government funds meant for teaching and non-teaching staff. The accused, Sanjay Bhaskarrao Garud (67), who manages several educational institutions in Jalgaon district and is the founder-director of Shendurni Education Society, was arrested from Natepute in Solapur district. The police said he had been hiding at a farmhouse to evade arrest and was tracked using technical surveillance and confidential intelligence. Garud joined the BJP from the NCP (SP) in January 2024 and is considered close to state water resources and disaster management minister Girish Mahajan. When contacted, Mahajan said, "I came to know about this when I was at an event. I need to gather complete information before commenting." The case was registered at Nashik Road police station in March this year following a complaint by the office of the Deputy Director of Education, Nashik Division. According to investigators, 841 teaching and non-teaching employees across Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts were fraudulently entered into the state's Shalarth salary management system, using forged appointment approvals and fabricated Shalarth orders despite there being no valid recruitment proposals or official sanctions. The police said that the bogus entries enabled the accused and others to withdraw salaries and arrears from the state government, causing an estimated loss of Rs.160 crore to the exchequer. During the probe, investigators found that Garud, who manages 15 educational institutions, allegedly facilitated the creation of fake approval records for 177 teaching and non-teaching employees without submitting any legitimate proposals to the education officer's office. Assistant commissioner of police (Crime) Sandeep Mitke said, "As per the complaint registered at Nashik Road police station, we arrested Garud from Natepute in Solapur district. More than 150 fake teacher profiles were created in institutions managed by him. So far, the role of more than 200 schools has come to light, over 1,200 accused have been identified and five persons have been arrested." The Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by rural development department secretary Chandrakant Pulkundwar, is probing the wider scam. Earlier this month, the Nashik police arrested former Jalgaon zilla parishad education officer Shashikant Hingonekar for his alleged role in creating bogus Shalarth IDs. The alleged irregularities first came to light after irregularities were detected in the Shalarth portal, Maharashtra's online system used to maintain service records and process salaries of teachers and non-teaching employees in government and aided schools. Investigators allege that forged approvals, fake appointments and fabricated Shalarth IDs were used to fraudulently withdraw government funds over several years. In July 2025, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis informed the legislative assembly that the creation of bogus Shalarth IDs appeared to be a statewide racket. Fadnavis had estimated the total fraud at between Rs.2,000 crore and Rs.3,000 crore, and said that action was being taken against those involved....