He signed off on his wife's salary while she never set foot in the office
In Jaipur, a government official entrusted with the machinery of public administration turned that trust inward, engineering a quiet fiction in which authority and self-interest became indistinguishable. Pradyuman Dixit, Joint Director in Rajasthan's IT department, allegedly placed his wife on private company payrolls she never earned, signing her salary approvals himself — a closed loop of corruption that ran undisturbed for years. The Anti-Corruption Bureau, moved by a High Court directive, has now filed an FIR, opening a formal reckoning with what happens when the guardian of public contracts becomes their quiet beneficiary.
- A senior IT official allegedly invented employment for his wife at two private firms, collecting over Rs 37 lakh in salaries for work she never performed across five years.
- The scheme's brazenness lay in its circularity — Dixit signed his own wife's salary authorizations, collapsing the boundary between oversight and fraud into a single signature.
- Investigators found the corruption ran deeper than ghost salaries: Dixit allegedly steered government contracts toward one of the same companies, binding public duty to private reward.
- A colleague, Deputy Director Rakesh Kumar, is accused of helping conceal the arrangement, suggesting the fraud was sustained not in isolation but through institutional complicity.
- After a Rajasthan High Court order compelled action, an FIR was registered in October 2025, moving the case from bureaucratic investigation into criminal prosecution.
Pradyuman Dixit occupied a position of considerable authority in Rajasthan's Department of Information Technology and Communications — authority over contracts, hiring, and government business. According to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, he used that authority to construct a private fiction: his wife Poonam appeared on the payrolls of AurionPro Solutions Ltd and Trigent Software Pvt Ltd, drawing a monthly salary of Rs 1.60 lakh. Over five years, her accounts received Rs 37.54 lakh. She never worked a single day at either company.
What made the scheme audacious was its mechanism. Dixit himself signed the salary authorization documents, functioning simultaneously as a government official and as his wife's nominal supervisor at private firms. Payments flowed into five separate personal accounts in Poonam's name, and for nearly two years, no one questioned the arrangement.
Investigators eventually found the corruption extended further. Dixit had allegedly used his government position to direct contracts toward AurionPro, creating a reciprocal arrangement that bound public procurement to personal enrichment. A colleague, Deputy Director Rakesh Kumar, was implicated in helping conceal the fraud — a detail suggesting the scheme had not survived on silence alone, but on cooperation.
The Rajasthan High Court ordered charges to be filed in September 2024. The ACB registered a formal FIR on October 17, 2025, moving the matter into criminal prosecution. What remains open is how long the arrangement might have continued undetected, and whether similar designs exist elsewhere within the state apparatus.
Pradyuman Dixit held a position of trust in Rajasthan's Department of Information Technology and Communications. As a Joint Director in Jaipur, he had authority over contracts, hiring decisions, and government business. What he did with that authority, according to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, was construct an elaborate fiction for personal gain.
Between January 2019 and September 2020, Dixit's wife, Poonam, appeared on the payroll of two private companies: AurionPro Solutions Ltd and Trigent Software Pvt Ltd. She collected a monthly salary of Rs 1.60 lakh from these firms. Over the course of five years, the total payments to her personal accounts reached Rs 37.54 lakh. There was one problem with this arrangement: Poonam never worked at either company. She never reported to an office. She never performed a single day of labor. The money simply arrived.
The mechanism of the fraud was audacious in its simplicity. Pradyuman himself signed the salary authorization documents. He acted simultaneously as a government official and as his wife's supervisor at private companies, rubber-stamping her monthly payments with his own signature. The companies transferred funds directly to five separate personal bank accounts held in Poonam's name. No one questioned it. No one checked. The arrangement continued uninterrupted for nearly two years.
A confidential complaint eventually reached the Anti-Corruption Bureau, triggering an investigation that would unravel the full scope of the scheme. What investigators discovered extended beyond simple salary theft. Pradyuman had not only fabricated his wife's employment at these two firms—he had allegedly used his government position to steer contracts toward AurionPro, creating a quid pro quo arrangement that benefited both his family and the company. The corruption was not incidental to his job; it was woven into it.
The scandal implicated others. Rakesh Kumar, a Deputy Director working in the same department as Pradyuman, was accused of helping to conceal the fraud. Whether through deliberate silence or active assistance, Kumar's involvement suggested the corruption had not operated in isolation but had required cooperation from within the bureaucracy itself.
The Rajasthan High Court ordered the ACB to file charges and investigate in September 2024. The bureau complied, filing a formal complaint on July 3, 2025. Investigators then examined the companies' records and traced the flow of money through Poonam's accounts. On October 17, 2025, an FIR was registered, marking the transition from investigation to criminal prosecution. The case now moves into the formal machinery of the law, with questions still unresolved about how long the scheme might have continued undetected, and how many other arrangements of similar design might exist within the state's government apparatus.
Citações Notáveis
Pradyuman managed to secure not one but two ghost jobs for his wife at AurionPro Solutions Ltd and Trigent Software Pvt Ltd, where she never worked a single day but drew a monthly salary of Rs 1.60 lakh.— Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation findings
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
How does someone in a government position even have the authority to sign off on private company payroll?
That's the question that makes this case so brazen. Pradyuman wasn't just approving his wife's salary—he was acting as her supervisor at these private firms. The companies apparently accepted his signature as legitimate authorization. It suggests either they were complicit, or they didn't scrutinize the paperwork carefully enough.
Did anyone at the companies notice she wasn't showing up to work?
That's what's striking. For nearly two years, Poonam collected Rs 1.60 lakh every month from two different employers, and apparently no one in HR or management flagged her absence. Either the companies were in on it, or their internal controls were nonexistent.
What made someone finally report this?
A confidential complaint reached the ACB. We don't know who filed it or what prompted them to come forward. But once the investigation started, the paper trail was clear—five bank accounts, regular transfers, signatures that all belonged to Pradyuman.
And the government contract angle—that seems like a separate crime.
It does. He wasn't just enriching his wife. He was allegedly using his position to favor AurionPro in contract awards. That's abuse of public office for private benefit. It's the kind of corruption that affects which companies get government work, which shapes the entire ecosystem.
What happens to him now?
The FIR was filed in October. He'll face criminal charges. But the real question is whether this uncovers a broader pattern. If one official could run this scheme for two years, what else might be hidden in the system?