Police are investigating alleged unauthorised withdrawals from savings and fixed deposit accounts at a Punjab National Bank branch, where several employees including the manager have been suspended.
At least ₹35 crore is alleged to have vanished from customer savings accounts and fixed deposits at a Punjab National Bank branch in Greater Noida, triggering a police case, an internal bank probe and the suspension of several employees, including the branch manager. According to reports from The Economic Times and The Times of India, the complaints came from account holders at the Aichhar branch, many of them farmers who say money was moved without their consent and without the alerts they expected.
The accusations have struck a raw nerve because much of the cash appears to have come from compensation paid for acquired land. NDTV reported that one customer, Haneef Khan, said his savings account had held ₹39 lakh before the balance disappeared. Another customer, Vijendra Singh, told reporters his account had fallen from about ₹87 lakh or ₹88 lakh to just ₹1 lakh. The Indian Express also reported the case of Santosh, a tea and samosa vendor from Bironda village, whose family says ₹1.18 crore was missing from an account that had received ₹1.29 crore in compensation for land acquired for the Jewar airport project.
Customers say they learned of the losses only after checking balances or trying to withdraw money, raising questions over how the transactions were executed and why standard notifications did not reach them. NDTV reported that another account holder, Zakir, said ₹9.5 lakh had gone missing from his account and that he had not received any message about the transfers. The New Indian Express said some complainants found their savings and fixed deposit accounts drained, while others reported severe reductions in balances that had once represented life-changing compensation payments.
Police have registered a case at the Beta-2 station, which has jurisdiction over the branch, while the bank has moved to suspend staff and contain the fallout. The Times of India reported that the branch has remained closed as account holders gathered outside seeking repayment, and The New Indian Express said the bank’s regional office in Noida has replaced the suspended employees with new staff. The exact route taken by the money has not yet been established, and officials have not publicly confirmed whether the losses were caused by theft, negligence or some other form of internal misuse.
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