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New Delhi: Vijay Vishwas Pant, the 2004-batch IAS officer currently heading the high-profile Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the Ram Mandir donation scam, was named an accused in a criminal case involving alleged cheating and forgery. The case against him dates back to developments during his tenure as a top power distribution official in western Uttar Pradesh from 2013 to 2015.

In February 2019, Pant was among 14 officials from the Western Electricity Distribution Corporation (WEDC) booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) and 465 (forgery) at the Parikshitgarh police station in Meerut.

The First Information Report (FIR) followed a complaint by a labour contractor who accused the department officials of altering official records to withhold his payments. While Pant was named in the FIR as the Managing Director of WEDC – a position he held from February 7, 2013, to December 3, 2015 – the core allegations do not appear to target him directly.

Pant currently serves as the Divisional Commissioner of Lucknow. He was the District Magistrate of Kanpur when the case was originally registered in 2019 on the complaint of Shivkumar Sharma, the labour contractor.

The link between the SIT chief and the pending fraud case was first reported by Hindi language journalist Abhishek Upadhyay on his social media channel, Top Secret.

“The one who is himself under investigation for fraud and forgery, is conducting the probe into the embezzlement, fraud, and forgery at Ram Mandir! So how will the Ram Mandir investigation be impartial? It will be exactly as the government dictates,” Upadhyay wrote on X on July 8.

News of the case has surfaced ten days after the Pant-led SIT submitted its preliminary findings on the alleged theft of donations at the Ayodhya Ram temple to the Uttar Pradesh government on June 23, 2026. A final report from the SIT is expected by the end of July.

Vishwa Jyoti Rai, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Meerut who is looking into the earlier case involving Pant and others, told The Wire that the inquiry in the earlier case was still on. “Vivechna prachalit hain (The inquiry is ongoing),” he........

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