Ahmedabad: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches on Thursday and Friday at 23 locations across five states, including Gujarat, in connection with a forged bank guarantee scam case and arrested two accused, including a Senior Manager of Punjab National Bank.

The law enforcement agency, in a press statement, said that it had registered three separate cases on May 9, 2025, following directions from the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. These cases involve a major financial fraud centered around the submission of forged bank guarantees worth Rs. 183.21 crore by an Indore-based company to the Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Limited (MPJNL).

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.

During initial verification, MPJNL received fraudulent email responses impersonating the official domain of Punjab National Bank (PNB), falsely confirming the authenticity of the bank guarantees. Relying on these confirmations, MPJNL awarded the three contracts to the firm.

In this matter, the CBI launched a large-scale operation on June 19 and 20, 2025, conducting searches at 23 locations across New Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh. This led to the arrest of two individuals from Kolkata, including a Senior Manager from Punjab National Bank. Both were produced before the local jurisdictional court in Kolkata and will be brought to Indore on transit remand.

The investigation so far has revealed that a Kolkata-based syndicate has been systematically fabricating and circulating fake bank guarantees to secure government contracts across multiple states. Further investigation is underway. DeshGujarat