Overview
- The issue began when a remittance reconciled at the RBI around August 10–11 showed a ₹4.36 lakh shortfall, prompting a PNB audit that uncovered counterfeit notes.
- Initial counting found 148 bundles of fake ₹500 notes with a face value of about ₹7.4 crore, and continued verification has raised the estimate to roughly ₹17 crore.
- PNB filed an FIR and suspended three officials named in the complaint while a part-time housekeeper was separately implicated after CCTV footage reportedly showed him handling bundles.
- Police formed a Special Investigation Team and a 21-member RBI–PNB joint team is tracing the movement of cash, with raids and record checks extending into Haryana and Uttarakhand.
- Investigators are examining transaction logs, audit ledgers, CCTV and counting procedures to pinpoint control breakdowns and to determine whether the fake notes entered the chest through a single source or a wider network.