In the ongoing investigation of the New India Cooperative Bank (NICB) fraud case, the eighth arrested accused, Rajeev Ranjan Pandey, also known as Pawan Gupta, 47, has been remanded to police custody for seven days. Pandey was arrested from Bokaro and produced before a holiday court in Mumbai on Sunday, where the decision was made to facilitate further investigation into his involvement in the case.
Rajeev Ranjan Pandey, identified as a beneficiary in the NICB money siphoning scandal, reportedly received approximately ₹15 crore out of the ₹122 crore embezzled from the bank. The police are now set to interrogate Pandey to unravel the reasons behind this substantial transfer made by Unnathan Arunachalam, another arrested accused in the case, and to determine the end-use of the funds.
Pandey’s connection to the case came to light during the interrogation of Arunachalam, a businessman in the solar panel sector, who himself is alleged to have received about ₹50 crore from the scheme’s proceeds, orchestrated by the main accused, Hitesh Mehta, a former general manager of NICB.
“Pandey is implicated in money doubling schemes, and we will probe deeper to understand his role in the receipt of the crime proceeds,” stated a police officer involved in the case. The arrest followed soon after Pandey’s name surfaced during the investigation. He was apprehended in Bokaro with assistance from local police based on technical evidence and subsequent on-site interrogation that confirmed his involvement.
Following his arrest, Pandey was swiftly brought to Mumbai on a transit remand and was formally presented in court today. Further investigative procedures are scheduled, including a brain mapping test for Hitesh Mehta on March 28 at Kalina Forensic Laboratory, after his lie detector test results were deemed “deceptive.”
