The Central Bureau of Investigation has made fresh arrests in the high-profile fake bank guarantee scam linked to irrigation contracts in Madhya Pradesh. On Monday, the agency took into custody Mahesh Kumbhani, managing director of Teerth Gopicon Limited, along with associate Gaurav Dhakad. Both men are slated to appear before a special CBI court on Tuesday.
The crackdown comes months after the CBI detained three individuals from Kolkata, including a senior Punjab National Bank official, for their alleged role in the same case. Investigators believe the accused orchestrated a fraud of over ₹183 crore by submitting forged bank guarantees to win contracts worth nearly ₹974 crore from the Madhya Pradesh Jal Nigam Limited (MPJNL).
Court filings reveal that in 2023, Teerth Gopicon secured three irrigation projects spread across Chhatarpur, Sagar, and Dindori districts. To back these contracts, the company allegedly produced eight counterfeit guarantees, which later helped it extract approximately ₹85 crore as mobilisation funds from the state-run body.
The scandal deepened when MPJNL’s routine verification was allegedly compromised by fake email confirmations, designed to mimic Punjab National Bank’s official domain. These deceptive messages assured MPJNL of the guarantees’ validity, paving the way for contracts to be awarded.
The CBI has so far registered three separate cases on the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, with investigators describing the fraud as a sophisticated corporate-led operation involving forged documents, insider complicity, and digital impersonation.
With Kumbhani and Dhakad now in custody, the agency is expected to widen its probe to track financial trails and identify potential beneficiaries beyond the initial arrests. Officials said the scam has exposed serious loopholes in contract verification processes within large public infrastructure projects.
