Days ahead of daughter’s marriage, gold worth Rs 65 lakh ‘missing’ from bank locker, Vadodara family files police complaint

Shah said, “We live in the US and have arrived in Vadodara for our daughter’s wedding. When we visited the bank to operate the locker and when my wife saw that the lock of the aluminum box was broken, she was suspicious. Our fears came true when we opened the box and saw that the gold ornaments were missing… We have a list of our items. There are bangles, bracelets, necklace, and ten gold coins among other jewellery that makes a total of about 30-35 tola (408 grams) of gold. There are also silver ornaments and articles in the safe deposit locker that are not missing.”

Accusing the bank of giving “dissatisfactory answers”, Shah said that he summoned the police to the spot. “When we asked officials of the bank about the gold, they did not reply in a satisfactory manner and insisted on “resolving the matter internally”. My daughter’s wedding is slated for the day after tomorrow and we had no choice but to call the police… It was in 2024 that I applied for a locker at the bank and even created the mandatory fixed deposit for the same. We kept all the gold and precious ornaments in the locker. We have not visited the bank in a while so the management has to answer where the gold is.”

Bapod police station in Vadodara city on Thursday initiated a probe into the allegation, following a complaint filed by the family. A police official of Bapod police station said that the primary probe would look into the details of the operation of the safe deposit locker of the bank, which operates on a dual key system.

The official said, “The family had called the police from the bank right after discovering that the gold was missing. A primary probe has been initiated. We know that the locker was operated through a dual key system and some members of the same family were authorised for joint access to use the locker… We are checking the records of the safe deposit locker operation register of the bank to ascertain when it was last operated and by whom, as well as any available CCTV footage of the bank in the preceding days will be examined, as necessary.”

The officer added that the statement of the bank manager and the official responsible for keeping the record of the locker will also be recorded.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (G Division) M P Bhojani told The Indian express that as per the process, an application from the complainant has been received and a probe initiated. “We have received the application from the family… The probe will be conducted to ascertain details in the case and if any criminal act is found to have occurred, an FIR will be lodged accordingly.” Following the incident involving the Shahs, several safe deposit holders of Cosmos Bank turned up at the branch to confirm if their belongings in their respective lockers were safe.

Customers queued up at the bank seeking access to their lockers even as the police arrived at the spot to conduct a primary probe into the complaint made by Shah.