NICB case: Police gets custody of 8th arrested accused for 7 days

The eighth arrested accused in the New India Cooperative Bank money siphoning case, Rajeev Ranjan Pandey alias Pawan Gupta, 47, who was arrested from Bokaro, was produced in the holiday court on Sunday, which remanded him to police custody for seven days for further investigation.

MUMBAI: The eighth arrested accused in the New India Cooperative Bank (NICB) money siphoning case, Rajeev Ranjan Pandey alias Pawan Gupta, 47, who was arrested from Bokaro, was produced in the holiday court on Sunday, which remanded him to police custody for seven days for further investigation. The police said Pandey was a beneficiary and had received around ₹15 crore from the ₹122 crore that was siphoned off from the bank.

Mumbai, India - March 23, 2025:EOW official arrested and produced Rajiv Pandey, in financial fraud of New India Bank , at Esplande Courtin Mumbai, India, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Police will now interrogate him to find out why he was given ₹15 crore by another arrested accused in the case, Unnathan Arunachalam, and what he did with the amount.

Police said Pandey’s role had emerged during Arunachalam’s interrogation. Arunachalam, a businessman dealing with solar panels, had received around ₹50 crore from the crime proceedings from the main accused, Hitesh Mehta, a general manager of the bank.

“Pandey is into money doubling schemes, and we will be interrogating him to find out why he received a part of the crime proceedings,” said a police officer.

Police started tracing Pandey soon after his name emerged in the case investigation. Based on technical evidence, a police team Jharkhand, and with the help of the local police, picked up the accused from Bokaro and took him to a local police station, where was interrogated. Once he confessed to taking the money, he was placed under arrest and his family members informed.

He was produced in the local court, and based on a transit remand, brought to Mumbai on Saturday. He was produced in court today.

An EOW officer said that brain mapping of the main accused, Mehta, will be done on March 28 at Kalina Forensic Laboratory as his lie detector test was flagged as “deceptive”. Meanwhile, Gauri and Hiren Bhanu, the former chairpersons of the bank who are on the run, have claimed innocence and said through their counsel, Sajjal Yadav, that Hitesh Mehta orchestrated the entire scam.