Bank staff replace gold worth Rs550 million with artificial jewellery

Staffers of a private bank have robbed people of gold ornaments deposited in the bank by replacing it with artificial jewellery.

Police said the employees of two branches of the bank in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Gulshan-e-Iqbal were involved in the heist. The incident came to light when an audit team from the bank’s head office visited the Gulistan-e-Jauhar branch and found out that gold ornaments placed in sealed bags in a locker had been replaced with those made of bronze.

The audit team informed the head office, and another audit team was sent to the bank the next day. The team checked 150 sealed bags and found more artificial jewelry while further bags were being checked. Police said 28 customers deposited the gold ornaments in the bank’s lockers and took a Rs550 million loan from the bank.

Police said the Gulistan-e-Jauhar branch’s manager along with some other staff members was involved in replacing the gold ornaments with the artificial ones. A case had been registered at the Sharea Faisal police station on a written complaint of a senior official of the bank.

Gulistan-e-Jauhar branch manager Farah Mansoor, operation manager Zulfiqar Ali Junejo, cashier Safdar Kalhar, relationship manager Hassan Alvi, counter service manager Omair Wahab and gold finance executive Adeel Latif were arrested.

In the Gulshan-e-Iqbal branch, branch manager Agha Mansoor, Saleem, Kamran and a fake client, Ayesha Mirza, were involved. They were arrested during raids conducted in the city.

According to East Zone Investigation SSP Altaf Hussain, three kilograms of gold, Rs2 million and four luxury vehicles had been recovered from the possession of the suspects. Further investigations are under way.