Sunita Somvanshi
The discovery of counterfeit currency inside the secured vault of a Punjab National Bank branch in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has triggered a Special Investigation Team inquiry and First Information Reports against bank officials.
What makes this case unusual is not just the amount involved. It is where the fake notes were found.
Bank branches hold everyday operating cash. Currency chests are a different category entirely. They function as official repositories authorized by the Reserve Bank of India, and they store cash reserves that are distributed to surrounding commercial branches and ATMs. Currency that enters a chest is supposed to pass through Note Authentication and Sorting Machines — automated systems that check notes for authenticity before they are stored or distributed.
India’s currency chest network spans more than 4,000 locations operated by commercial banks on behalf of the RBI. Each chest functions as a secure node in the cash distribution chain. When a chest is compromised, the counterfeit notes it distributes can reach multiple branches, ATMs, and ultimately the public before the forgery is detected. The Saharanpur case is unusual because the fraud was detected internally during reconciliation — in many counterfeit currency cases, detection happens only after forged notes re-enter the banking system from customers or other branches.
The fraud came to light during an internal audit and physical cash reconciliation process. The initial verification on August 9 found 148 bundles containing fake ₹500 notes valued at approximately ₹7.40 crore. As the audit continued and records were cross-referenced, the suspected total of counterfeit currency grew to approximately ₹17 crore.
Three senior bank managers — divisional senior manager Ravi Kumar Kansay, Sophia Market currency chest manager Sushil Kumar Sharma, and Yamunanagar chest manager Amit Kumar — were suspended by PNB and named in FIRs filed under charges related to criminal breach of trust and the circulation of forged currency. Part-time housekeeper Vishal Kumar was also named in the FIR. CCTV footage from the chest room captured Vishal Kumar removing notes from currency bundles inside the restricted area.
The CCTV evidence is significant not just for identifying individuals but for establishing the timing of entries into the chest room. Currency chests maintain detailed entry logs — who accessed the room, when, with which authorized staff, and what bundles were handled. Cross-referencing those logs against CCTV timestamps and bundle serial numbers can establish a sequence of events that either corroborates or contradicts individual accounts. The SIT’s ability to reconstruct this timeline is central to the criminal case.
The investigation is examining how counterfeit notes came to be present in the currency chest despite the required authentication and verification controls. Currency records, bundle records, CCTV evidence, and cash transaction documentation are all part of the investigation trail that can help establish when and how the notes entered the chest.
The preliminary investigation indicated the possibility that counterfeit notes were deposited in the chest and genuine currency was withdrawn in exchange.
If that preliminary finding is borne out, it would explain the progression in the total from ₹7.40 crore to ₹17 crore: a substitution of genuine notes for counterfeit ones would not necessarily show up as an obvious discrepancy in total bundle counts, but would surface in the serial number comparison that reconciliation ultimately triggers. The scale of the substitution — if confirmed — implies either that multiple entries were made over an extended period or that a single exchange involved a very large number of bundles.
What can be said with certainty: counterfeit notes were found, three senior managers have been suspended and booked, a housekeeper is named in the case, and the SIT is working through vault records and CCTV evidence to determine how it happened.
