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Gold valuer arrested for cheating bank of ₹92 lakh
A 40-year-old gold valuer has been arrested in Mumbai for allegedly duping a bank of over ?92 lakh by certifying fake gold jewellery as genuine. The valuer had arranged for the fake jewellery and had taken half of the loan amount received by 38 customers. He had been on the run for three years before being arrested.
MUMBAI: A 40-year-old gold valuer, who had been on the run for around three years, has been arrested for allegedly duping a bank of over ₹92 lakh by certifying fake gold jewellery as genuine.
The gold valuer, Harish Jain, had allegedly cheated Hindustan Co-operative Bank by certifying fake gold jewellery, pledged by 38 customers for loans, as genuine and recommending a total loan of ₹92 lakh, which was disbursed, according to Navghar police.
It was later learnt that Jain had arranged for the fake gold jewellery and the 38 fraud bank customers from whom he had taken half of the amount received as loans.
According to Navghar police, Jain was arrested from Nalasopara where he was staying in a rented apartment. “In the past three years, we had been trying to track him from Gujarat to Rajasthan, but had not been able to find him,” said Abhijit Laande, PSI from Navghar police station.
However, on Tuesday, the police learnt through informers that Jain had been staying in Nalasopara. “We formed a team and searched Santosh Bhavan area, found Jain and arrested him,” said Laande.
The owner of the jewellery shop from where Jain had obtained fake gold ornaments is missing, said the police.
Laande said that in 2016, Jain was hired by the Bhayandar-based bank as its gold valuer to verify the value of gold jewellery that clients pledged to avail loans.
Jain had verified the gold ornaments pledged by 38 clients and a total loan of ₹92 lakh was disbursed among them based on his reports. The bank had given loans ranging from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh to each of the customer.
Laande said that in 2018, when the bank found that none of these 38 clients were paying the monthly instalments, the manager sent them notices that the gold jewellery they had mortgaged would be sold, if they failed to repay the loan.
When the bank officials did not get any response to the notices, they called another gold valuer. “When the bank officials the gold jewellery re-valued, they found them to be fake,” said Laande.
The bank manager then approached Navghar police and based on his complaint, an FIR was registered against Jain and the 38 customers as they had received the loan amount in their bank accounts.
“The customers were aware of the fraud and paid Jain 50% of the loan amounts,” said another police officer from Navghar police station.
The officer added that they were tracking Jain through the IMEI number of his mobile phone and made several rounds of Rajasthan and Gujarat but did not find him there.
“Jain had been changing his mobile number frequently because of which we could not know his location,” said Laande.