The police have arrested Noel Singh, the former branch manager of the Central Bank of India, who had been on the run in connection with a ₹10 crore embezzlement case involving the Madhya Pradesh State Seed Certification Institute. He was caught in Akola, Maharashtra, after months of searching. Eight other accused have already been arrested in this case.
Fraud Case Details
The case came to light in September 2024 when Sukhdev Prasad Ahirwar, the head of the Seed Certification Institute in Bhopal, filed a complaint at the Kotwali police station. He reported that ₹10 crore, which was deposited as a Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) in the Central Bank of India’s Imami Gate branch in Bhopal, had been misappropriated.
Following the complaint, the police registered a case against BD Namdev from the Madhya Pradesh Seed Certification Institute and Noel Singh, the then branch manager of the Central Bank of India. They were booked under various sections related to financial fraud.
Arrests and Investigation
As the investigation progressed, the police arrested multiple individuals connected to the scam, including:
- Brijendra Das Namdev
- Deepak Panthi
- Dhananjay Giri
- Shailendra Pradhan (also known as Acharya Baba)
- Rajesh Sharma
- Piyush Sharma
- Varun Kumar Chaudhary
- Kislayraj Chaudhary
However, the main accused, Noel Singh, had been absconding since the case was registered.
Police Search and Arrest
Despite multiple raids in Bhopal, Jabalpur, Chhindwara, and Mumbai, the police were unable to locate him. Eventually, they received a tip-off that Singh was hiding in Akola, Maharashtra. Acting on this information, a police team was sent to Akola, where they successfully arrested him.
Singh, who previously lived in Old Minal Residency, Bhopal, had been evading arrest for months. Following his capture, he is now being interrogated by the police to uncover further details about the scam.
