Love has blossomed, and for this love, a daring lover has been caught after orchestrating a ₹657 crore scam. As the details of this massive fraud, committed to provide a luxurious lifestyle for a dancer girlfriend, come to light, it has sparked intense reactions across the country. Alongside the disappearance of crores from government accounts, this expensive love story has become the talk of the town, with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) identifying Ribhav Rishi, the manager of the Chandigarh branch of IDFC First Bank, as the prime accused.
According to the CBI investigation, despite being married, Ribhav Rishi came into contact with a dancer in Chandigarh in March-April 2025. Later, their intimacy deepened during a farmhouse party in Jaipur and at a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Introducing himself as a rice import-export businessman and an event planner, Ribhav requested his girlfriend to quit her dancing profession. In exchange, the accused handed over a total of ₹56 lakh to her, at a rate of ₹10 lakh per month from August 2025 to January 2026.
To ensure a lavish life for his girlfriend, he purchased a luxury residence in Delhi’s Dwarka worth approximately ₹4 crore and traveled with her to places like Goa, Thailand, Macau, and Dubai. Besides staying in a duplex at Dubai’s Burj Al Arab, Rishi had planned to settle permanently in a 4-bedroom villa he purchased near the airport.
According to the woman’s statement, approximately ₹15 to ₹20 lakh was spent on each luxury party held at Zirakpur’s Z Manor. At these parties, attended by some IAS officers from the Haryana government and other influential individuals, bundles of notes were openly showered on the dancers.
The investigation has clarified that Ribhav approved the embezzlement of ₹187.35 crore through at least 25 fraudulent transactions from government accounts. Out of the embezzled funds, about ₹18.32 crore was also transferred to the personal account of Ribhav’s wife, Divya Arora. Following the leak of information about this entire scam of looting government funds to satisfy a girlfriend’s expensive tastes and luxury lifestyle, the CBI is continuing a marathon investigation into the roles of the government officials involved.
