The CBI Special Court, Haryana, on Friday dismissed the bail application of Ribhav Rishi, the alleged mastermind of the Rs 657-crore IDFC First Bank–AU Small Finance Bank scam, after the CBI alleged that the accused not only used the embezzled Haryana government funds to purchase property, but also to “sponsor parties with dancers and escorts, stay in luxury hotels, [and] take leisure and pleasure foreign trips.”Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had made similar allegations against him.The CBI counsel argued before the court: “Investigation, based on an extensive body of documentary, banking, electronic and testimonial evidence, has established that the applicant (Ribhav Rishi) is the principal architect and mastermind of the entire criminal conspiracy. He personally conceived, initiated, coordinated and executed the scheme by which government funds of the State of Haryana, entrusted to the bank, were misappropriated and thereafter siphoned off to shell entities controlled by him and his co-accused, whereby [they were] converted for personal gain and use.”“Rishi resigned as the branch manager at IDFC First Bank, Sector 32, Chandigarh, in August 2025, and later shifted to AU Small Finance Bank in November 2025, where he continued with fraudulent activities,” said Sameer Sethi, counsel for IDFC First Bank.Regarding his modus operandi, the CBI submitted that he first contacted senior Haryana government officials, joined them in a criminal conspiracy, and then initiated banking proposals with multiple departments. He started the process even before IDFC First Bank was empanelled for government business in Haryana.“Ribhav Rishi then falsely represented artificially high rates of interest than the official rates of IDFC First Bank… Accused officials of the Haryana government accepted those proposals with knowledge of the falsehood in furtherance of the conspiracy and made investments in the branch where Ribhav Rishi was posted…,” the CBI added.He allegedly had his colleagues at the bank process the fraudulent transactions by bypassing all checks and balances in the system and creating fake approval emails.The investigating agency said that, for high-value transactions exceeding his own authority under the bank’s financial delegation norms, Ribhav Rishi fabricated approval emails purportedly emanating from the National Head (Sachin Mehta), Zonal Head (Vishesh Soni), Regional Head (Dhirender Pratap Singh) and Cluster Head (Harjot Singh Gill). He also allegedly fabricated Urban Banking Exception Approval Requests (RITMs) in the names of those officials.Ribhav Rishi allegedly laundered Haryana government funds through a network of recipients who converted them into cash, real estate, gold and other assets.“The cash was then distributed among various senior government servants, utilised for property purchase payments, routed through hawala channels, used to sponsor parties with dancers and escorts, stay in luxury hotels, leisure and pleasure foreign trips, etc. These siphoned-off funds were also distributed among various accused persons who then invested them in properties and also made personal use of them,” the CBI said.He allegedly funded the Goa trip of co-accused Randhir Singh (Rs 2.52 lakh, paid in cash), international trips of co-accused Naresh Kumar, including a stay at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai (Rs 7.16 lakh), and arranged parties at Jade Manor Hotel, Zirakpur.He also allegedly arranged for cash, iPhones and gold to be delivered to co-accused Manish Jindal and Vikram Wadhwa, and paid pecuniary benefits to senior Haryana government functionaries who are presently in jail.Ribhav Rishi allegedly personally authorised at least “25 fraudulent debit transactions totalling Rs 187.35 crore across government accounts.” The CBI claimed that he himself received Rs 4.40 crore from M/s SRR Planning Gurus and Rs 1.50 crore from Swastik Desh Projects, both shell entities allegedly under his control, into his personal accounts, while his wife, Divya Arora, received Rs 18.32 crore into her personal account.Seeking bail, Rishi argued that he was not in a position to influence or threaten any witness or tamper with any evidence, since the entire body of evidence relied upon “is documentary and electronic in character.”After hearing the arguments, CBI Special Judge Vijayant Sehgal dismissed the bail application.