Five staff members suspended after local farmers report missing balances and unapproved fixed deposit liquidations
NOIDA, India : Police in Uttar Pradesh have opened a criminal investigation into suspected embezzlement of roughly Rs 35 crore ($4.2 million) at a Punjab National Bank branch in Greater Noida, following formal complaints by rural depositors that substantial savings had vanished without notification.
The state-run lender has suspended five staff members, including the branch manager, at its rural office in Aichhar village after customers found their savings wiped out or their fixed deposit certificates broken prematurely.
Investigators at the Beta-2 police station registered a First Information Report on Wednesday under Section 316(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which penalizes criminal breach of trust by bankers and public servants. The case consolidates 16 formal complaints, with individual reported losses ranging from Rs 10 lakh to over Rs 1.18 crore.
Many of the affected depositors are local farmers and landowners who had deposited state compensation received for land acquired for major regional infrastructure, including the upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar.
Victims told investigators they neither initiated transactions nor received statutory one-time passwords (OTPs) or automated SMS alerts. The discrepancies came to light only when customers visited the counter to update physical passbooks or review term balances.
Haneef Khan, a local depositor, stated that his savings balance of Rs 39 lakh had dropped to zero without warning. Another resident, Vijendra Singh, discovered his account had plummeted from Rs 88 lakh to just Rs 1 lakh. A separate complaint registered by a village resident, Shrichand, alleged that an unapproved withdrawal of Rs 1.16 crore occurred following the premature liquidation of a fixed deposit.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Santosh Kumar said an Assistant Commissioner of Police has been assigned to head the investigation. Police noted that forensic accountants will audit digital transfer logs and internal branch ledgers before arriving at a definitive sum and total victim count.
PNB has deployed an internal anti-corruption vigilance team to audit the branch records, while its Delhi headquarters placed freezes on several linked beneficiary accounts to halt further fund outflows.
The episode reopens scrutiny into internal compliance mechanisms at Punjab National Bank, India’s third-largest public-sector lender. In 2018, the institution uncovered an estimated Rs 13,850-crore unauthorized guarantee scheme at its Brady House branch in Mumbai, orchestrated through fraudulent letters of undertaking that prompted nationwide regulatory reforms in trade credit.
Bank officials stated that normal administrative operations at the Aichhar counter have resumed under replacement staff while the inquiry runs its course.
