New Delhi, Jun 1 (IANS): As the investigation unfolds in the multi-crore 'maternity leave scam' at the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the number of cases of fraud have gone up from the initial figure of 600 to over 1600.

The scam involves hundreds of female employees from the private sector who allegedly connived with the officials of the ESIC to exploit monitory benefits provided under the maternity leave scheme of the Union government.

The Vigilance Department, which is carrying out a massive audit of the ESIC, also discovered that in several cases, female employees availed the benefits of maternity leave multiple times, placing on record the delivery of babies four times in a year, which is biologically impossible.

The ESIC comes under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment. The scam was unearthed at the Faridabad regional office during routine internal audit.

"As of now, benefits obtained through fraudulent means worth over Rs 8 crore have been traced. The scam seems to be of a higher scale and could have been committed in other parts of the country as well," a senior official of the Ministry told IANS.

Maternity leave is paid holiday of 26 weeks.

The preliminary probe in the scam was launched after an internal audit of the ESIC revealed a dozen such cases in a year. The case, unearthed by IANS last week, is being probed by the Vigilance Department at the ESIC headquarters in Delhi.

The scope of the inquiry has been expanded from three years to cover the past six years. Sources said so far six employees and three officials have been suspended and a task force has been set up to probe the scam.