Nagpur: The Rs 23-crore fake gold loan scam at ICICI Bank in Nagpur is rapidly snowballing into what investigators suspect could be a deep-rooted internal conspiracy, with officials now hunting for a possible “mastermind” operating from within the bank itself.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has launched an intensive probe to identify the bank insider who allegedly orchestrated and shielded the fraudulent operation for years. Investigators believe the scale, coordination and longevity of the fraud point strongly towards systematic manipulation of internal processes rather than an isolated act of cheating.
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Preliminary findings indicate that the scam was meticulously organised, involving a network of insiders and external collaborators who allegedly worked in tandem to siphon off crores through fraudulent gold loan accounts. Officials say a fraud of such magnitude, spanning multiple branches and dozens of accounts, would have been nearly impossible without the knowledge, or active involvement, of someone within the bank’s higher operational structure.
The massive fraud first surfaced during a routine gold loan audit at the bank’s Manish Nagar branch, where auditors discovered that several ornaments pledged as collateral were counterfeit. What initially appeared to be a limited irregularity soon unravelled into a far larger racket.
Subsequent scrutiny across branches exposed a disturbing pattern: 159 account holders across nine branches had allegedly secured loans by pledging fake gold ornaments. Investigators estimate that the fraudulent operation ran quietly for nearly three years, from January 2023 to October 2025, raising serious questions about the bank’s internal checks, monitoring mechanisms and audit systems.
Police said the alleged racket involved a well-connected chain of account holders, valuers, auditors and bank officials, each playing a role in pushing fake gold through the loan approval pipeline. Those named in the case include account holder Sachin Raut, valuer Nandu Kharwade, auditors Rajendra Shilankar, Pramod Tete and Dhananjay Dhomne, along with branch manager Pankaj Kekatpure.
Investigators are also scrutinising another 152 account holders, who are suspected of being part of the broader network that exploited the system.
Sources in the investigation revealed that the accused allegedly worked in close coordination to bypass verification protocols, with valuers clearing ornaments without proper authentication while internal safeguards were conveniently ignored. This has strengthened suspicions that a key insider may have been guiding the operation and ensuring the scam remained undetected for years.
Communication trail under lens
EOW officials have now widened the investigation and are examining internal records, approval files and communication logs in a bid to track the suspected mastermind behind the fraud.
“The scale and the duration of the scam clearly suggest that someone within the system facilitated it,” a senior investigator said.
Sources also indicated that several other branch managers and bank officials are now under the scanner, as investigators attempt to uncover the full extent of the conspiracy and determine whether the fraud was part of a larger, coordinated banking racket.
