GONDA: Police have arrested Jay Pratap Singh and Raj Pratap Singh, the two sons of former bank manager Pawan Kumar Pal, in connection with an alleged ₹21.47 crore scam at a branch of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Bank Limited in Gonda district. The brothers had been on the run for nearly nine months before being apprehended at around 5 pm on October 18 and subsequently remanded to judicial custody. Their arrest takes the total number of people held in the case to nine, while three other accused continue to evade the authorities.
Forged Documents and Fictitious Accounts
The irregularities were first uncovered on January 12, 2026, when the bank’s assistant branch manager, Bhuvan Chandra Sati, lodged a formal complaint at the Nagar Kotwali police station against 16 individuals. Two days later, bank general manager Kapil Pathak placed then branch manager Pawan Kumar Pal, then manager Sushil Gautam, and Ajay Kumar under suspension. The initial police inquiry revealed that the accused had operated as a coordinated network to systematically misuse five internal bank accounts and the savings and loan accounts of 205 customers.
Investigators discovered that loans were sanctioned against forged papers without the mandatory verification process. Furthermore, ₹46.13 lakh was transferred out of internal bank accounts into various customer accounts through fraudulent transactions and later withdrawn. Funds misappropriated from the bank were also used to pay monthly instalments on selected delinquent accounts, a maneuver intended to keep them from being categorized as non-performing assets and thereby delay detection by head office auditors.
Family Accounts Channeled Misappropriated Funds
Subsequent investigations turned up evidence that Pawan Kumar Pal used the bank accounts of his close relatives to divert and conceal the siphoned money. Funds were directed into the account of his late mother, Sumitra Pal, while his wife, Sanjana Singh, secured anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court. The role of his two sons emerged as central to the movement of illicit proceeds, leading to their prolonged evasion of arrest and eventual capture.
A special audit conducted by a Reserve Bank of India-empanelled chartered accountant corroborated the financial embezzlement of ₹21.47 crore and identified Pawan Kumar Pal as the principal architect. The initial investigating officer, then Crime Inspector Sabhajeet Singh, compiled and submitted a 3,000-page chargesheet before the court. In April 2026, officials from the Enforcement Directorate’s Lucknow unit visited the branch to seize relevant records, broadening the scope of the inquiry into the wider money trail.
Property Attachments and Ongoing Search
According to City Circle Officer Yogendra Singh, who is now supervising the probe, the arrested individuals include Pawan Kumar Pal, Jay Pratap Singh, Raj Pratap Singh, Ajay Kumar, Sushil Kumar Gautam, Raghav Ram, Shivakant Verma, Geeta Devi, and Mohammad Aslam. Meanwhile, Dushyant Pratap and Pradeep Kumar Singh have obtained anticipatory bail from the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. Law enforcement teams are currently conducting raids to track down the three remaining absconders: assistant cashier Pawan Kumar, Ritendra Pal Singh, and account holder Phool Mohammad.
Parallel to the arrests, authorities have initiated strict proceedings to recover the defrauded assets. On August 21, 2026, police attached properties worth ₹5.94 crore linked to Pawan Kumar Pal, Sushil Gautam, Raghav Ram, and Shivakant Verma. On October 18, under court directions, an additional property valued at ₹1.08 crore belonging to Phool Mohammad was attached, bringing total seized assets to ₹7.02 crore as investigators continue to trace the remaining proceeds.
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