A huge financial fraud of more than 7 crores has been discovered in a Canara Bank branch in the Jalna district of Maharashtra where the loans secured by gold ornaments were reportedly stolen and substituted with fake jewellery. The case was revealed when the gold loan packets were being audited as part of the bank routine quarterly audit of the strong room.
Police said that on April 22, anomalies were identified in the form of a number of packets that contained counterfeit gold. More investigation disclosed that, 22 packets worth around 3.79 crore contained counterfeit jewellery and 30 packets worth 3.52 crore were missing altogether. An April 23 CCTV footage allegedly captured a bank officer taking gold packets off the strong room and hiding them.
The manager of the branch has been registered on a case by the authorities together with another bank officer and a gold appraiser. To the manager, it is alleged that he was negligent because he would give unauthorized individuals access to the strong room and disregard the security measures. The gold appraiser is said to have certified a fake jewellery as genuine and this helped in the fraud.
Following a complaint submitted by a senior Canara bank official, the Badnapur police have charged the accused with criminal breach of trust, fraud and negligence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. They have already arrested two suspects with the ongoing investigation.
Police suspect a bigger conspiracy is involved in the fraud and are investigating the possibility of other people being involved.