Kilpauk, Chennai: A big gold loan fraud has been reported in Punjab National Bank in Chennai. The fraud is estimated to be around ₹3.15 crore.
As per reports, original gold jewellery was replaced with fake jewellery. The Central Crime Branch (CCB) has registered a case against four persons, including a former branch manager and a bank official.
The case was registered based on a complaint from Ganesh Chandra Banda, manager of the Punjab National Bank branch on Taylors Road.
On April 24 a customer visited the bank to take back his jewellery. This jewellery was kept in bank as security against gold loan taken by the customer.
When bank staff went to retrieve the articles, they found that the bag containing the jewellery was missing from its designated locker and was found below a locker.
The bank staff got suspicious and decided to verify the jewellery. During verification, jewellery weighing 2.137 kg belonging to 24 customers was found in the locker.
However, examination revealed that the original ornaments had been replaced with imitation jewellery. The CCB’s preliminary investigation pointed to the involvement of former branch manager Saravana Babu, locker-in-charge Gopika, Durai Babu, and cleaner Purushothaman.
The police suspect that the accused removed the pledged gold and substituted it with fake ornaments. Efforts are on to recover the missing jewellery. The four suspects are reportedly on the run and efforts are under way to arrest them.
The police are investigating the case and more details will be released soon.
