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The National Investigation Agency apprehended absconding Punjab National Bank manager Amit Kumar in Chandigarh on September 7.
A Special NIA Court in Chandigarh granted a two-day transit remand to produce Kumar before the Special NIA Court in Lucknow.
The case involves the recovery of counterfeit Indian currency notes amounting to ₹17.29 crore from PNB's Saharanpur currency chest.
The National Investigation Agency has arrested Amit Kumar, a bank employee named in the FIR, in the alleged counterfeit-currency conspiracy linked to Punjab National Bank’s currency chest in Saharanpur, where fake Indian currency worth ₹17.29 crore was recovered. The NIA said Kumar was arrested in Chandigarh on September 7.
Kumar was serving as a PNB manager and jointly held custody of the currency chest at the time. The NIA said he was an absconding accused and a key person named in case RC-02/2026/NIA/LKW.
“The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested an absconding accused, Amit Kumar, a bank employee and a key FIR-named accused in the conspiracy relating to counterfeit currency notes at the Punjab National Bank currency chest, Saharanpur, UP, in case RC-02/2026/NIA/LKW,” reads an official statement by NIA.
Case Timeline Details
He was later produced before a Special NIA Court in Chandigarh, which granted two days’ transit remand for his production before the Special NIA Court in Lucknow.
On August 29, police at Saharanpur’s Sadar Bazar station registered the case under Section 178 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, against three accused persons. The NIA later took over the case and re-registered it on September 3, 2026, as RC-02/2026/NIA/LKW.
The initial inquiry also brought three PNB employees into focus, and the bank later suspended them. Kumar is one of those three employees named in the FIR.
How Scam Emerged
The irregularity was detected after officials noticed a shortfall in currency moved from PNB’s Ghantaghar branch in Saharanpur to the RBI currency chest in Jaipur. That prompted a deeper probe.
An audit that began on August 9 then turned up 148 bundles of counterfeit currency, each containing 1,000 notes of ₹500. The fake notes were initially valued at ₹7.40 crore.
As the audit continued, the amount of counterfeit currency detected climbed to around ₹17 crore. The case was later described as involving ₹17.29 crore in counterfeit Indian currency notes recovered from the PNB currency chest in Saharanpur.
Livemint reported that CCTV footage showed part-time housekeeper Vishal Kumar removing notes from currency bundles while he was working inside the currency chest.
Wider Probe Continues
The NIA is now examining the broader conspiracy. It is probing the source, procurement and movement of the counterfeit currency, along with the alleged roles of other persons involved.
The agency said the investigation is still working to unravel the complete conspiracy and trace and arrest the remaining accused persons.
The state police had already expanded the response earlier this month. Uttar Pradesh Police constituted a special investigation team to probe the alleged circulation and storage of counterfeit currency, and later widened the investigation to neighbouring districts as well as Haryana and Uttarakhand.
