BHOPAL: In connection with the Rs 183.21 crore fake bank guarantee scam case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two persons including the managing director of an Indore-based company.
Mahesh Kumbhani, the managing director of Teerth Gopicon Limited, and Gaurav Dhakad were arrested by the CBI on Monday. The duo will be produced before the special CBI court on Tuesday.
The two arrests came three months after the central investigation agency arrested three men from Kolkata in the same cases.
In June, the CBI had arrested three men, including Govind Chandra Hansda, a senior manager of the Punjab National Bank and Mohd Firoz Khan in connection with the Rs 183.21 crore crore fake bank guarantee scam-related cases.
Earlier, acting on the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the CBI had registered three cases pertaining to the major financial fraud involving the submission of eight forged bank guarantees by the Indore-based Teerth Gopicon Limited, an Indore-based company to get Rs 974 crore worth contracts from the MP Jal Nigam Limited (MPJNL).
Back in 2023, the company secured three irrigation projects in Chhatarpur, Sagar and Dindori districts of Madhya Pradesh, with a total value of Rs 974 crore. To support these contracts, the company submitted eight fake bank guarantees worth Rs 183.21 crore. On the strength of these forged guarantees, it also received approximately Rs 85 crore as mobilization advances from MPJNL.
During the 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 false confirmations, MPJNL awarded three contracts worth Rs 974 crore to Teerth Gopicon Limited.