Mumbai: Public sector bank official, others booked in alleged Rs 70L fraud

The police complaint stated that as per procedure, Vishwas transferred the said gold to the bank’s bullion branch in Kalbadevi. From here, it was transferred to the government’s mint. After mint officials prepared a test report of the said gold then, it was sent back to the bank’s bullion branch.

In his statement to the police, Patel claimed the government mint, in its test report, showed the gold had a purity of 999.9, but when the bullion branch of the bank gave its certificate to the complainant, the accused had allegedly lowered its purity to 999 as against 999.9. Patel claimed before the police that despite there being no terms and conditions of assessed loss of weight in the GDS, the bank showed a lower weight in proportion to the lower purity in the certificate.

Patel further alleged that he demanded the bank to pay him as per the current market rate of the gold, but this didn’t happen. The complainant alleged in the FIR that the bank’s assistant general manager K Parthsarthi, some of its officials and the government’s mint allegedly connived with each other and forged documents, decreased the weight of the deposited gold and caused wrongful loss worth nearly Rs 70 lakh to him.

“I had purchased gold and invested in the scheme for my daughter’s wedding. But I did not get it back and I had to purchase gold separately for her marriage,” Patel said. “I was made to run pillar to post by the Malad and MRA Marg police. They did not register my complaint, hence I lodged a complaint against concerned police officers and decided to file a complaint in the court,” Patel added.

Patel approached Borivali court at the end of February and filed a private complaint. The court under section 156(3) of the CrPC directed the Malad police to register an FIR and investigate the matter further.

On the court’s direction, the police on Monday booked Parthsarthi and other unknown accused persons under sections 120-B, 166, 405, 409, 420, 465, 468 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and commenced a probe. The police started an investigation into the matter and were checking the veracity of the allegations made against the bank officers. Police were also in the process of obtaining documents pertaining to the gold scheme given to Patel, an officer said.

Patel said he also filed a complaint in the matter with the Consumer Committee and the consumer district forum.