Nagpur: Nearly three years after fake gold ornaments were allegedly used to siphon off crores in loans, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Nagpur City Police has begun tightening its grip on what appears to be a well-organised financial fraud involving auditors, valuers and bank customers.
On Thursday, the EOW arrested two auditors, Pramod Tete, a resident of Lalganj, and Rajendra Shilankar of Pipla, in connection with the scam in which counterfeit gold ornaments were pledged to secure loans from nine branches of ICICI Bank. The fraudulent transactions allegedly caused a loss of Rs 23.19 crore to the bank.
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Both accused were produced before a local court, which remanded them to three days of police custody. The investigation is being led by Assistant Police Inspector Santosh Tokalwad of the EOW.
The scam surfaced only after an internal audit raised red flags within the bank’s gold loan portfolio. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Deepak Aggarwal, the complaint was filed by Dhananjay Thite, Zonal Head of ICICI Bank’s Ajni Chowk office, at Dhantoli Police Station.
Bank authorities had appointed Vicky Vishwakarma on October 18, 2025 to conduct a gold loan audit. During the inspection, several gold packets were found to contain fake metal instead of genuine ornaments, triggering a wider scrutiny.
Further verification between October 20 and 27, 2025 at the Manish Nagar branch revealed 32 fake gold packets. Alarmed by the discovery, the bank expanded the audit to other branches. The comprehensive inspection across nine branches eventually detected 159 fake gold packets, exposing the scale of the alleged fraud.
Three-year scam under scanner
Investigators believe the racket operated for nearly three years, from January 1, 2023 to October 31, 2025. During this period, counterfeit gold ornaments were allegedly pledged as collateral to obtain loans.
Police have named seven valuers and appraisers in the case, including Nandu Kharwade, Rajendra Shilankar, Pramod Tete, Dhananjay Dhomne, Pankaj Kekatpure and Sachin Raut, along with 152 account holders who allegedly availed loans using the fake ornaments.
According to investigators, the accused allegedly worked in coordination to pass off fake ornaments as genuine during verification. Valuers are suspected to have cleared the ornaments without proper checks, while internal safeguards within the loan approval system were allegedly bypassed.
Larger conspiracy suspected
EOW officials suspect the fraud could be much deeper than initially believed. The involvement of multiple branches and a large number of borrowers has raised the possibility of internal collusion and a central mastermind orchestrating the racket.
Investigators are now scrutinising loan documentation, valuation records and the role of bank staff to determine whether insiders facilitated the fraud or ignored warning signs.
Sources in the investigation indicated that more arrests could follow as the EOW attempts to unravel the full network behind the Rs 23.19 crore gold loan scam, which has exposed serious gaps in verification and audit mechanisms within the banking system.
