183 crore scam in Punjab National Bank, CBI arrests manager

New Delhi: A big scam has taken place in Punjab National Bank. CBI has arrested two PNB officials in the fake bank guarantee scam of 183 crores. Indore-based company Tirth Copican Limited got three irrigation projects worth Rs 974 crore from Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam in 2023.

In return, the company took a loan from Punjab National Bank by giving a fake guarantee of 183 crores. CBI investigation revealed that the guarantee was fake. CBI raided the premises of the Indore company in many states of the country. CBI has arrested two managers of Punjab National Bank.

CBI had started investigation by registering three separate cases on 9 May 2025 after the order of Madhya Pradesh High Court. In this, CBI had come to light a scam of fake bank guarantee of Rs 183.21 crore to Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Limited (MPJNL) by an Indore company. This company had secured three projects worth Rs 974 crore from MPJNL in Madhya Pradesh in 2023.

To support these contracts, 8 fake bank guarantees worth Rs 183.21 crore were submitted. During the initial verification, emails were sent to MPJNL posing as PNB officials and falsely confirmed the bank guarantee. After these fake confirmations, MPJNL gave three contracts worth Rs 974 crore to this company.

In this case, the CBI conducted a large-scale operation on 19 June 2025 and 20 June 2025 and raided 23 locations including Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and arrested two people including a PNB bank manager. Both were produced in Calcutta Court and brought to Indore on transit remand and interrogation has been started.

Company Senior Bank Manager PNB Govind Chandra Hansanda and Mohammad Firoz Khan have been arrested on charges of fake bank guarantee. Investigation has revealed that the Calcutta-based syndicate systematically created fake bank guarantees and circulated them in projects with multiple secured government contracts.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Tata Consulting Engineering, Boskalis Smit India LLP, Jan De Nal Dredging Private Limited and others, including the then Chief Manager of JNPT Mumbai, on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal conduct by a public servant.

The CBI had registered a preliminary inquiry PE in 2022 against the then officials of JNPT, accusing them of colluding with private companies to inflate valuation estimates, restrict competition and provide unfair advantage to international bidders. During the investigation, a criminal conspiracy between JNPT officials and other private individuals was unearthed, which caused illegal loss of Rs 365.90 crore to JNPT. The total loss in this case is about Rs 800 crore.