Big Fraud in SBI Faridkot! Wife of Cashier Arrested, SBI refunds money to Public

A massive banking fraud was reported at the State Bank of India’s (SBI) Sadiq branch in Faridkot, Punjab. Customers of SBI were duped of crores of rupees. The scam, allegedly masterminded by cashier Amit Dhingra, involved siphoning funds from savings accounts and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) accounts. Forged fixed deposit (FD) receipts were issued to customers to hide the scam.

The fraud came to notice on July 21, when a villager discovered major discrepancies in his account and informed the bank. Soon after, other customers reported similar irregularities, exposing a large-scale scam that has now affected nearly 200 villagers. Initially, 186 complaints were lodged, pointing to losses of around ₹14 crore. In the last 20 days alone, 14 more complaints have been filed, raising the estimated fraud amount by another ₹1 crore.

Investigations revealed that Amit Dhingra was not acting alone. His wife, Rupinder Kaur, and his close friend, Abhishekh Kumar Gupta, also helped him in the scam. Police detected suspicious transactions worth ₹2.30 crore in Rupinder’s account, which was linked to Amit’s phone and operated by him. Rupinder was the first to be arrested on July 24, followed by Amit’s arrest from Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, on July 30. A week later, Gupta was arrested on August 7, and gold ornaments and valuables, purchased using the siphoned money, were recovered from him.

Sadiq police confirmed that all three accused are currently in judicial custody, and further arrests are likely as raids continue to identify other possible links. The scam has raised concerns over security lapses at the branch, as Amit, though officially transferred to another branch, continued to visit the Sadiq branch illegally and gained unauthorized access to customer accounts.

Latest Updates in the case:

SBI has begun refunding the scam amount to customers. Regional Manager Praveen Soni said that ₹25 lakh has already been reimbursed in the first phase, and bank has promised to return all losses with an additional 1% compensation within 90 days of complaint submission. He clarified that so far, no irregularities have been found in bank lockers or gold loan accounts.

The bank has also ordered a departmental inquiry to identify supervisory lapses that allowed the fraud to continue undetected. While investigators have not yet found involvement of other SBI employees, officials admitted that procedural and oversight failures enabled Amit to carry out the scam for months.

The case, now under judicial scrutiny, has shaken the trust of local villagers in India’s largest public sector bank. The final scale of the fraud is expected to be confirmed within the next few weeks as audits and police investigations continue. More details will be released soon.