Rs 7 crore gold loan ‘fraud’ at bank in Maharashtra’s Jalna; two held

A Rs 7.31 crore fraud was exposed at Canara Bank’s Jalna branch involving stolen gold loan ornaments replaced with fake jewellery. Two arrests were made, with staff and a gold appraiser accused of fraud, negligence, and conspiracy under investigation

Jalna: An alleged fraud of Rs 7.31 crore involving theft of ornaments from gold loan accounts and their replacement with fake jewellery has come to light at a Canara Bank branch in Maharashtra’s Jalna district, police said on Sunday.

Two persons have been arrested in this connection and a case has been registered against the nationalised bank’s Badnapur branch manager, another officer and a gold appraiser, they said.

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The irregularities were detected recently during the routine quarterly revaluation of gold loan packets kept at the bank.

On April 22, officials found several packets containing fake gold. An investigation showed that 22 gold loan packets contained fake jewellery of Rs 3.79 crore. Additionally, 30 packets of gold valued at Rs 3.52 crore were missing from the strong room, an official from Badnapur police station said.

The CCTV footage analysis of April 23 showed a bank officer allegedly stealing gold packets from the strong room and concealing them, he said.

According to the police, the branch manager allegedly violated security protocols by allowing the officer access to the strong room alone, showing negligence in duty.

A gold appraiser is also accused of certifying fake gold as genuine, facilitating the fraud, they said.

Based on a complaint by a senior bank official, the Badnapur police registered a case on Friday against the three accused on charges of criminal breach of trust, fraud and negligence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Two persons have been arrested so far, while further investigation is underway, the police said, without identifying those taken into custody.

The police were probing the possibility of a larger conspiracy and involvement of more individuals, Badnapur police inspector M T Survase said.