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The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case into an alleged fraud of 10.24 crore rupees at the Punjab National Bank branch in Aichhar village, Sector Pi-1, Greater Noida. The suspected diversion of funds from customers’ savings accounts and fixed deposits took place over a period of nearly three years. Branch office assistant Deepanshi, posted at the branch since July 26, 2021, has emerged as the prime accused following an internal inquiry by the bank. She is accused of colluding with an acquaintance, Ashutosh Pathak, to siphon the money by misusing the core banking credentials of senior colleagues.
Unauthorized access to credentials and manipulated alerts
Deepanshi worked as a sub-staff member and held no independent authorization to carry out financial transactions. However, she allegedly exploited her physical access to branch systems to misuse the Core Banking System user IDs and passwords of six colleagues. The compromised credentials belonged to the senior branch manager, senior customer service associate, customer service associate, relationship manager Scale-1, and two other officer-level employees. The CBI is now examining digital logs to establish whether the staff members knowingly colluded or had their credentials accessed without their knowledge.
To avoid detection from customers, mobile transaction alerts on targeted savings accounts were either switched off or the registered phone numbers were modified. The bank’s preliminary inquiry further revealed that paper vouchers linked to these suspicious transactions were missing from the branch records. Officials have raised concerns that transaction slips were intentionally destroyed to hide the trail of illicit fund movements and violate service conduct rules.
Premature liquidation of deposits and layered fund transfers
The operation also involved the systematic liquidation of customer fixed deposits. Ashutosh Pathak and other named individuals were added as joint account holders on existing fixed deposits without authorization. The payout details were subsequently altered, allowing the deposits to be broken before maturity and the balances diverted into separate accounts.
Rather than moving the stolen money directly to Pathak, the funds were routed through accounts belonging to Pradeep Kumar, Membanti Devi, Priyanka Kumari, Shanti Devi, Shalini, and Saroj Devi. From there, portions were transferred into Pathak’s account, while other sums were withdrawn in cash. Investigators discovered that Pathak’s bank account had originally been opened by Deepanshi herself.
Deepanshi claims financial coercion during bank questioning
During the internal bank inquiry on October 10, 2026, Deepanshi admitted her ties to Pathak and conceded that she had operated the credentials of other bank personnel without their consent. She told investigators that Pathak had an unresolved financial dispute involving 15 to 20 lakh rupees with her father. Pathak allegedly promised her that the stuck money would be released if additional capital was provided.
Trusting these assurances, Deepanshi borrowed 4 to 5 lakh rupees to pay Pathak before facilitating the larger unauthorized transfers from customer accounts. The central agency is continuing its scrutiny of the account-opening papers, beneficiary trails, and internal system logs to recover the missing money and establish the role of all staff members involved.
