Overview
- Rishi Gupta was taken into custody on February 27 by the DGGI Hyderabad unit under Sections 132(1)(a) and 132(1)(i) of the CGST/SGST Acts, with the ground of arrest issued at 03:55 IST.
- The board appointed Chief Financial Officer Ketan Merchant as Head of the Organisation to oversee day‑to‑day operations, the RBI was notified, and the bank says services remain unaffected.
- Media reports citing sources link the probe to alleged routing of real‑money online gaming funds through non‑KYC accounts, shell entities and payment aggregators, with about Rs 3,000 crore and transactions over Rs 13,000 crore under scrutiny; these details remain unverified.
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she will "check" after industry figures questioned the arrest, and reports say the CBIC is likely to evaluate the matter and seek a report.
- Fino’s shares fell 7.5% on Friday, and the episode follows recent RBI milestones including in‑principle approval to convert into a small finance bank and clearance to reappoint Gupta, alongside weaker Q3 FY26 results.