look news india
A sensational case of fraud worth crores of rupees has come to light in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch located in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In this serious case of embezzlement of ₹10.24 crore by manipulating the official accounts and internal financial systems of the bank, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), taking prompt action, has arrested the main accused, bank employee Deepanshi and one of her personal associates. A formal complaint in the case was submitted to the CBI after the internal audit report of the bank management found huge financial discrepancies and led to unauthorized transactions at the branch. On the basis of preliminary investigation and strong electronic evidence, the central agency has registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act and relevant sections of the Indian Justice Code and taken both the accused into custody.
Preliminary investigation by CBI has revealed that the accused bank employee Deepanshi was posted in the bank branch and she had special digital credentials related to Core Banking System (CBS) and operation of internal accounts. The accused, abusing his position and system access, gradually started diverting funds from the internal suspense and settlement accounts of the bank. To evade internal monitoring of the bank, the accused transferred funds in small and medium installments to several dummy (mule) bank accounts opened in the name of his associate and other acquaintances. According to investigating officials, the transferred amount was immediately withdrawn through RTGS into various ATMs, checks and third party accounts, taking the total embezzled amount to ₹10.24 crore.
Before the arrest, special teams of CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch conducted intensive raids at the residential and other suspected locations of the accused located in Greater Noida, Delhi and Ghaziabad. During the search operation, the investigating agency has recovered internal documents of the bank, transfer vouchers, several benami passbooks, chequebooks, bank seals as well as digital devices like mobile phones, laptops and hard drives of the accused. Forensic investigation is also being done to find out whether any senior official of the bank or external financial middlemen were involved in this scam.
The CBI has produced both the accused before the competent special CBI court and sought police custody remand for detailed interrogation and recovery of the embezzled amount. On the other hand, after this big scam was exposed, the Punjab National Bank management has started a comprehensive forensic audit of all the internal ledgers of the concerned branch. Along with this, the role of other suspicious employees of the branch is also being internally investigated while tightening the security protocols to ensure that there are no other security vulnerabilities in the system.