Complainant also took eight loans, owes ₹24 lakh to bank

STAFF COMPLICITY ALLEGED Financier Sukhjinder Pal Singh, who is in police custody, also availed eight loans in different names, reveals bank record

GOLD MORTGAGED BY THE FINANCIER IN HIS OWN NAME AND NAMES OF HIS FAMILY MEMBERS, WAS ALSO MUCH LESS THAN STATED IN PAPERS

HOSHIARPUR: An internal inquiry into the gold loan scam in the Bulhowal branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) has revealed that Gaurav Bharti, one of the loanees, on whose complaint the police had registered the first information report (FIR) against the bank manager, a facilitatorcum-financier and a jeweller, had himself availed eight loans in the names of his family members. He owes ₹24.14 lakh to the bank.

The multiple loans taken by Gaurav Bharti prove that all loanees were not innocent. Bharti and his family mortgaged 1,036 gm gold as per the empanelled jeweller’s report whereas they had pledged 245 gm gold only.

Financier Sukhjinder Pal Singh alias Sunny, who is in police custody at present, also took eight loans in different names.

The gold he mortgaged came out to be of much less value as compared to the amount of loans drawn against the pledged gold.

As per preliminary investigation, he used to entice needy villagers to avail bank loans. Using their documents, and in some cases gold ornaments, he would approach the bank and get the loans sanctioned.

Keeping a big share of the loan amount with himself, he would give small amount to the villagers and would charge interest himself. The loanees claimed they were not aware that their names were being used to cheat the bank by the financier.

The gold mortgaged by the financier in his own name and the names of his family members, was also much less than stated.

To avail loan, his family had pledged 1,127 gm gold but ,after the exposure of the scam, when the quantity and the quality of the metal was verified by a private jeweller, it came out to be 911 gm only.

In all the 224 cases detected in the scam, the gold’s quality was found to be much inferior.

The bank claims to have sanctioned the loans on the basis of empanelled jeweller’s verification report, but the authorities are silent on how so many loans were approved in the name of a single family. “It is difficult to believe that the bank staff were ignorant of the wrongdoings. Without their connivance, misappropriation of such a magnitude could not have taken place,” said RTI activist Rajiv Vashisht, who had exposed the scam.

A fraud case has been registered against branch manager Sidharth Bhatti, financier and bank’s empanelled jeweller Jatinder Kumar.

The financier was nabbed by the borrowers themselves and handed over to police. He remained on three-day police remand after his arrest. On Friday, the remand was extended for one more day.

The police are learnt to have extracted significant information from him regarding his modus operandi.