FIROZABAD: A major discrepancy has been reported at a Bank of India branch in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district, where gold pledged by customers as loan security has allegedly gone missing from a locker, police said on Thursday.Officials said 96 packets of pledged gold were found missing from the Bharaul branch locker.The bank’s Agra regional office chief manager Aditya Pratap Singh lodged an FIR at the Araon police station on Wednesday night against three employees, including the then branch manager.Superintendent of Police Aditya Langhe said the complaint noted that bank staff member and key custodian Dilip Kumar, a resident of Basgaon village in Etawah district, had been absent without intimation since May 27, due to which locker-related operations had come to a halt.When repeated attempts to contact him failed, suspicion arose and the matter was escalated to the Agra regional office. Following this, senior security manager Ankit and senior manager (security) of the Ghiror branch, Sushil Kumar, were deputed to the Bharaul branch on June 15.Police said a duplicate key was arranged and the locker was opened in the presence of the bank’s panel advocate Shiv Kumar Sharma, with the entire process video recorded. Officials then found that 96 gold loan packets were missing from the locker.The FIR did not specify the weight or value of the missing gold, but police said it is suspected to be worth crores of rupees.An FIR has been registered under Section 316(5) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against former branch manager Sandeep Yadav, staff officer Dilip Kumar and credit officer/staff officer Naresh Kumar, a resident of Hathras district.Araon police station in-charge Rishi Kumar said an investigation has been launched and teams, including the surveillance unit, have conducted raids at multiple locations to trace the accused and recover the missing gold.(With PTI inputs)
