Surat: The detection of crime branch (DCB) sleuths arrested four of the 22 persons who are accused of defrauding several branches of ICICI Bank in the city by borrowing 41 loans total worth Rs 2.55 crore by mortgaging fake gold.
Police had booked these 22 on Thursday following a complaint lodged by Sandip Antala, manager of the bank, after an internal investigation of the bank revealed that the deposited gold was not genuine and merely plated.
The loans were borrowed between August 10 to October 15 this year.
Police arrested Jagdish Babariya (34) of Dindoli, Prashant Joshi (27) of Sarthana, Manoj Bhanderi (35) of Mota Varachha and Nalin Pansuriya (49), a resident of Ghod Dod Road, and booked them under various sections ofIPC including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and others.
Babariya is a property broker and real estate developer, while Joshi is employed in his firm. Bhanderi and Pansuriya are also property brokers. “They were already undergoing financial crisis which only aggravated during the lockdown. As they couldn’t pay their debts, they plotted cheating the bank,” said a DCB official. The mastermind of the racket is yet to be identified.