A fraud worth ₹7.31 crore has been found at a Canara Bank branch in Jalna district, Maharashtra. The fraud is related to gold loans (when people keep gold in the bank and take a loan). During a regular check of gold items, bank officials found something wrong. Some gold packets stored at the bank were found to contain fake jewellery instead of genuine gold, while several other packets were discovered to be completely missing. A total of 22 packets were found to contain fake gold valued at around ₹3.79 crore, while 30 packets of genuine gold worth approximately ₹3.52 crore were reported missing.
How was it done?
CCTV footage reportedly captured a bank officer removing gold packets from the strong room. The situation was made more serious by the fact that the branch manager allegedly allowed the officer to enter the strong room alone, which is a violation of standard security protocols. Additionally, a gold appraiser is accused of certifying fake jewellery as genuine, which further enabled the fraud to take place.
Police have taken action by filing a case against three people, including the branch manager, a bank officer, and a gold appraiser. So far, two of them have been arrested. The charges include fraud, cheating, and negligence. Now, the investigation is ongoing, and police are trying to find out if more people were involved in this scam.
