In a major operation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested two individuals — including a senior bank official — in a ₹183 crore fake bank guarantee scam. The arrested accused are Govind Chandra Hansda, Senior Manager at Punjab National Bank, and Mohammed Firoz Khan.
The arrests were made in Kolkata, and the duo is being brought to Indore on transit remand after being produced in court. The case, which is being probed under the direction of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, involves M/s Teerth Gopicon Limited — a company accused of submitting forged bank guarantees to the Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Limited (MPJNL).
According to CBI, the company bagged three major irrigation contracts in 2023 worth ₹974 crore from MPJNL. To secure these, it submitted eight forged bank guarantees valued at ₹183.21 crore. Fake email confirmations, appearing to be from the official Punjab National Bank domain, had misled MPJNL into validating the guarantees.
Following these revelations, the CBI conducted massive raids between June 19 and 20 at 23 locations across Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh.
Officials revealed that a Kolkata-based syndicate has been consistently creating fake bank guarantees to fraudulently obtain government contracts across states. Investigations are ongoing, and more arrests are likely as the scale of the scam unfolds.
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