Two employees of an Indian Bank branch in Rajkot have been formally charged by police for allegedly misappropriating gold jewellery worth a staggering Rs 64 lakh. The gold was pledged as collateral by two borrowers for loans.
Key Accused and Initial Complaint
The case came to light after Ghanshyam Jha, an assistant general manager with Indian Bank, filed a formal complaint at the A Division police station in Rajkot. The First Information Report (FIR) names Shruti Shakhare and Vishnu Ilayath as the accused. Both were already under internal scrutiny by the bank and had been transferred to a branch in Chennai after the discrepancies were discovered in March of this year.
How the Theft Was Uncovered
The fraud was detected during a routine inspection. On March 17, 2025, officials from the bank's Mumbai office arrived at the Rajkot branch for an audit. When they checked the locker containing gold pledged by customers, they found a critical shortfall. Only 45 out of 47 gold pouches were present, clearly indicating two pouches were missing. The matter was promptly escalated to the zonal offices in both Mumbai and Rajkot.
The investigation zeroed in on the locker's security protocol. The locker holding the pledged jewellery required two keys to open. Both keys were under the control of the accused duo. Shruti Shakhare held the master key, and all keys were kept in a pouch in her custody. The daily operations of opening and closing the locker and vault, along with handling the gold, were solely managed by Shakhare and Ilayath. Standard procedure dictated that when one was on leave, the keys would be handed over to the other.
Internal Probe and Contradictions
Further checks revealed that the two affected customers had been sanctioned loans against their gold on September 27, 2024. During the bank's internal inquiry, both Shakhare and Ilayath, who were responsible for the keys, claimed the keys might have been accessed by an unknown person without their knowledge.
However, records showed a significant detail: Shruti Shakhare was on leave from January 31 to February 16, 2025. During this period, she formally handed over charge and the locker keys to Vishnu Ilayath. Despite this, Ilayath also denied any knowledge of the missing gold parcels.
Based on the findings of the internal inquiry, the police complaint alleges that during their tenure, Shakhare and Ilayath misused their exclusive access to the locker. They are accused of removing the gold parcels and committing a criminal breach of trust involving property entrusted to their care.
The A Division police have registered the case and a thorough investigation is currently underway to uncover the complete sequence of events and recover the missing gold.
