The Crime Branch has arrested four accused who defrauded about Rs 4.32 crore by pledging fake gold in ICICI Bank. In this matter, a case was registered against a total of 17 people including four bank employees, three goldsmiths and ten customers under various sections of fraud. Police are searching for the absconding accused.

According to DCP Shrutkirti Somvanshi, ICICI Bank's regional head Kanchan Rajdev and area manager Bhanu Umre had complained about this matter to Kolar police station. It was told in the complaint that during the surprise inspection and audit of the bank's Kolar Road branch, it was revealed that with the connivance of the bank's officers and employees and the authorized goldsmith who valued the gold, the suspected customers had mortgaged fake gold in the bank and collected about Rs 32 crore. The bank has been defrauded of lakhs of rupees.

When Kolar police station investigated the complaint, it was found to be true, after which the case was handed over to the crime branch. When the Crime Branch investigated at its level, it was found that four officers and employees of the bank, along with three goldsmiths, had caused a loss of more than Rs 4.32 crore  to the bank by pledging fake gold in a total of 36 accounts of 10 customers. Out of these, 22 accounts were found in which fake gold was pledged, while in 14 accounts, gold loan was sanctioned without the gold being pledged.

The Crime Branch had registered a case under various sections of fraud against 4 bank officials, 3 goldsmiths and 10 suspected customers.

In this case, goldsmith Rakesh Soni resident of Hanumanganj and Jagdish Kumar Soni resident of Bajaria along with two customers Shobhit Kumar Jain resident of Chhatarpur and Arun Sharma resident of Hoshangabad Road Bhopal have been arrested. Police teams have been deployed to arrest other accused.