Indore, June 20: The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested two persons, including a senior branch manager of Punjab National Bank, in connection with a counterfeit bank guarantee scam.
These cases involve a major financial fraud centered around the submission of forged bank guarantees to the tune of Rs 183.21 crore by an Indore-based company, to the Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Ltd.
The company secured three irrigation projects in 2023 in Madhya Pradesh, worth a staggering Rs 974 crore from MPJNL.
To support these contracts, eight fake bank guarantees valued at Rs 183.21 crore were submitted, the CBI said in a release.
The CBI took into custody Govind Chandra Hansda, senior manager at PNB, and Mohammed Firoz Khan from Kolkata following an extensive search operation spanning 23 locations across five states, Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
The investigation has so far revealed that a Kolkata-based syndicate has been systematically fabricating and circulating fake bank guarantees to secure government contracts across multiple states, the agency said.
The CBI registered three separate cases on May 9 following directions from the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
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