One more gold loan fraud has been reported in a public sector bank. This time, the fraud has been reported at Bank of India in Firozabad. Ninety six packets of gold are missing from Bank of India in Bharaul, Firozabad.
Three bank employees have been arrested in this case. The arrested employees are – branch manager Sandeep Yadav (36), credit officer Dilip Kumar (34), and staff officer Naresh Kumar (41).
“The branch manager and two staff officers of the local Bank of India branch have been booked for allegedly misappropriating 96 packets of gold that customers had pledged with the bank as security for loans,” said Superintendent of Police (SP), Firozabad, Aditya Langeh.
“Efforts are underway to trace and recover the missing gold. The role of other persons is being looked into,” he added.
While Naresh hails from Hathras, Dilip is from Etawah and Sandeep from Firozabad.
The alleged fraud came to light after the manager of Bank of India’s Bharaul branch alerted the zonal office that Dilip, who was one of the custodians of the vault keys, had been absent from work since May 27.
The zonal office deputed two senior officials to inspect the branch on June 15. Under CCTV surveillance, the team opened the gold vault using a duplicate key stored at another branch and began verifying the packets of jewellery deposited by customers against gold loans — and found 96 packets of gold were missing.
Police said the case was registered at Araon police station on a complaint filed by Aditya Pratap Singh, Chief Manager at the Bank of India’s Agra Zonal Office.
Police said a preliminary inquiry suggested that Dilip allegedly had a habit of online betting and gaming. During questioning, he reportedly told police that the gold removed from the vault had been pledged at another bank to obtain loans.
“Dilip claimed he mortgaged the gold at another bank and raised money against it. We are verifying his claim. We are also trying to establish the trail of the funds and determine where the money went after the loans were obtained,” a police officer said.
Police said Dilip developed a close relationship with the other two accused employees and gradually won their confidence. Misusing the trust, he committed the gold loan scam.
When a customer visits Bank for Gold Loan, he/she submits his gold to the bank and bank gives loan to customer as per the value of the gold. This gold is then kept in a vault which is closed by two bank officers. The key to this vault remains with two bank officers.
The police investigation is ongoing and more details will be released soon.
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