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A big gold loan fraud has been reported at Bank of Baroda branch in Kakinada in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. The Kakinada police on Saturday have arrested Narava Suribabu, a gold appraiser at the Bank of Baroda’s Kakinada branch, and recovered 1.2 kg of gold jewellery worth ₹1.45 crore from him.
Suribabu, a native of Cheediga village in Kakinada rural mandal, replaced gold jewellery pledged against 44 gold loan accounts with fake jewellery and absconded. The big fraud came to light recently.
“Gold jewellery worth ₹1.45 crore was recovered from Suribabu on Saturday. The investigation is on,” Kakinada Superintendent of Police G. Bindhu Madhav said.
A case has been registered against Suribabu under Section 316(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for criminal breach of trust, which carries a punishment of up to seven years in prison.
The gold loan fraud occurred at the bank’s Government General Hospital (GGH) branch in Kakinada city, Andhra Pradesh, where genuine gold collateral was systematically replaced with imitation jewellery. The scam officially came to light in July 2026. Branch Manager I. N. B. Abhiram lodged a formal police complaint after internal verifications exposed the missing ornaments and customer protests escalated.
The accused, Narava Suribabu, absconded shortly after the protest of customers. After tracking the fugitive appraiser for a few months, the Kakinada police officially caught and arrested Narava Suribabu on October 10, 2026
The gold appraiser Narava Suribabu tampered with sealed packages across 44 distinct gold loan accounts and replaced authentic gold ornaments with artificial replicas.
The fraud was discovered when customers who had fully repaid their loans requested the return of their jewellery. During taking back the jewellery, customers identified that the jewellery was not genuine. They filed complained with the police and bank management.
The bank conducted an internal investigation and found that the gold appraiser had replaced the original jewellery with a fake one. The branch manager of Bank of Baroda filed a complaint against the gold appraiser.
This incident has raised a lot of questions over the safety and security of gold ornaments pledged for gold loans taken by bank customers. How can a gold appraiser replace the original jewellery with fake jewellery? What were the bank employees doing?
The bank needs to answer these questions. Normally, a gold appraiser evaluates gold in front of bank staff, but in this case, it seems that either the bank staff was not present or the fraud was conducted in some other way. Bank of Baroda has not yet released any official statement.
